Football remains core gambling market across Africa

Gambling’s commercial role in football across six of Africa’s biggest countries remains strong, evidenced in the latest GeoPoll survey.

The 2025 study on gambling participation revealed that 60% of all 4,191 participants were actively betting on football, reinforcing the sport’s social significance in the nations of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.

Likewise, the gambling sector has played a core role in the sport’s long-term development, with betting operators actively supporting leagues, professional teams, and grassroots football. 

Football itself serves as a core marketing platform for nearly all major operators active in the above six markets, such as BetKing and betway.

Not only do these companies enter into high-visibility sponsorship and name rights deals, but they also attract known footballers for brand ambassadors – Jay-Jay Okocha and BetKing for one – to attract a younger demographic.

The success of these marketing campaigns was also pinpointed by GeoPoll, with their study’s primary focus group being those aged between 25-34 (50% of total), among the 18-24 (30%) and over 35 (20%) age groups.

Aviator games take flight

Another highlight from the report placed Aviator games in a separate category altogether, which came in second in terms of betting popularity (24%). 

This was completely absent from last year’s report on these same six countries, although they could’ve been bundled together under the ‘Casino’ category – which appeared again in the 2025 study, but significantly behind Aviator games (8%).

Aviator games were introduced to the global market at the turn of this decade, quickly gaining traction across Europe and Asia before making their way to African customers around three years ago thanks to the major online sportsbooks operating locally.

These games owe a significant amount of their success to their simple design, fast-paced gameplay, RTP rates, as well as mobile-first optimisation. This fits perfectly within the wider context of mobile penetration in Africa, with GeoPoll’s survey additionally revealing that 94% of all surveyed players used their mobile device to place a bet.