Reno Omokri Calls For Ban Of Nigeria Sports Betting Sites

• Reno Omokri has called for sports betting in Nigeria to be banned by President Bola Tinubu.
• Negative effects on the economy are one of the driving points Omokri made in his statement, but the banning of Nigerian sports betting
• sites would likely have reversed effects for what he wishes.

ABUJA, Nigeria – Popular Nigerian social media influencer and writer Reno Omokri has called for President Bola Tinubu to enact an Executive Order that would ban sports betting in the African nation.

President Tinubu can immediately improve the economic conditions of most Nigerians and make the Naira grow by issuing an Executive Order authorising the Nigerian Communications Commission to ban sports betting apps from the App Store of any GSM Internet Service Provider in…

— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) January 3, 2024

Currently, there are two types of Nigerian sports betting sites that are legal. Those are sites that are licensed by the Nigerian government and legal betting websites that are based internationally.

The type of sports betting sites and apps that Omokri can hope to ban are those licensed in Nigeria like Bet9ja and SportyBet. Foreign sportsbooks such as BetOnline and MyBookie are legal globally. They would remain so regardless of any Executive Orders.

The reasons that Omokri wishes to ban those legal sports betting apps can be summarized into three points:

• Sports betting can negatively affect the youth
• The sports betting industry negatively affects the Nigerian economy
• Gambling losses can lead Nigeria residents to commit petty crimes

Negative effects on youth and petty crime are common points made by politicians and social media influencers, but Omokri insinuating the ban of locally regulated sites for legal sports betting would help the economy is likely not true.

Nigeria as a country may be losing money to foreign businesses, but banning licensed sportsbooks would only push more action to internationally legal betting sites like BetOnline.

Nigeria-based sportsbooks like Bet9nja already struggle to compete with those foreign books because of the improved offerings and sign-up bonuses they offer. So, it may just be more effective to improve local options to keep the money in Nigeria as Reno Omokri wishes.

News tags: BetOnline | Bola Tinubu | Nigeria | Reno Omokri