Still Play Proposes Data-Driven Model for Responsible Betting in Nigeria

 

As Nigeria’s sports betting industry continues its rapid expansion, it faces mounting scrutiny over consumer protection, problem gambling, and the financial exposure of retail bettors. In response, fintech developer Utili Loci Ltd has unveiled a data-driven infrastructure model designed to redefine responsible gaming by combining controlled short-term credit, automated spending caps, and real-time behavioral tracking.

Known as Still Play, the platform provides a shared architecture that betting operators, telecommunications companies, financial institutions, and regulatory authorities can leverage to monitor wagering activity and mitigate systemic financial risks. Developed independently without government or regulatory sponsorship, the platform embeds responsible gaming mechanisms directly into the betting transaction itself.

To address the limitations of applying foreign gambling frameworks to the Nigerian market, the development team adopted an inductive analytical approach—building a new theorem and operational model directly from ground-up empirical data rather than relying on a pre-existing blueprint.

The model's empirical foundation rests on a comprehensive, mixed-methods pilot survey of 11,112 active respondents across eight states. The study utilized cluster sampling to select target geographic states, followed by purposive sampling to administer questionnaires. Commercial hubs Lagos and Abuja represented 26.3% of respondents each (52.6% combined), with the remaining 47.4% spread across Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Rivers, Nasarawa, and Kaduna. Demographic findings revealed that 81.6% of participants were young adults aged 18 to 29, while 73.7% earned between ₦9,000 and ₦100,000 monthly.

A central insight from the empirical data was that 43.6% of respondents agreed to take micro-loans to stake bets on odds with a high probability of winning, intending to repay the debt once their primary funds arrived. This highlights a widespread, previously unmonitored demand for short-term gambling liquidity tied directly to personal income cycles.

> "Responsible gaming cannot be built around enforcement alone," said Michael Akor, one of the lead researchers behind the project. "We need to understand the financial realities of the people placing these bets, why they are betting, and how their income cycles influence their behavior."

To channel this demand safely, Still Play produces and issues a non-divertible soft-loan voucher. Instead of disbursing open cash or unrestricted consumer credit, the platform provides structured betting liquidity pegged to a user’s verified earning capacity and predefined limits. Because the voucher is non-divertible, funds can only be redeemed within authorized betting environments. The system also introduces automated loss controls and mandatory cooling-off periods to prevent immediate loss-chasing.

Researcher Obende Prince Emmanuel highlighted the core rationale:

> "The idea is not to hand people open-ended credit to gamble. What our research points to is demand for small, controlled, and short-term liquidity that reflects a user’s earning cycle, while putting strict restrictions around how that liquidity can be used."

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Rather than leaving consumer protection to fragmented, external efforts, Still Play embeds these essential functions directly into its underlying system architecture using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The platform is engineered with built-in capabilities tailored for each sector: providing betting operators with real-time automated loss limits and cooling-off triggers at the point of stake; integrating telecommunications network rails for mobile access and subscriber identity verification (KYC/NIN); providing financial institutions with structured micro-credit infrastructure and risk assessment models; and equipping regulators with tools for real-time compliance auditing, systemic monitoring, and sandbox evaluation.

> "For this to work, it cannot be a solution owned by only one part of the ecosystem," Akor emphasized. "Operators understand their customers, regulators hold the protection mandate, financial institutions understand credit risk, and telecommunications companies provide much of the connectivity infrastructure."

A secondary benefit of the model lies in financial inclusion. By maintaining a disciplined history of voucher repayments within the Still Play infrastructure, users with limited formal banking records could establish verifiable financial footprints for broader credit scoring and economic inclusion.

However, integrating micro-credit into wagering requires strict adherence to consumer credit regulations, data protection frameworks (such as the NDPR), affordability standards, and anti-money laundering controls.

> "The real test is not whether we can make betting easier," noted team member Gabriel Chinedu Obi. "It is whether technology can make participation more disciplined, transparent, and measurable while giving regulators and operators better information to protect consumers."