Mukul Kaushik, the Chief Revenue Officer at Affnook, spoke with Geoffrey Muindi, the CEO of Gaming News Byte and one of Africa’s most skilled iGaming consultants, at SiGMA 2025 in Cape Town. The conversation showed how quickly online gaming and betting are evolving in Africa. They discussed the rise in internet usage as well as the growing significance of influencers and affiliates. This all shows that Africa is quickly turning into one of the most promising and exciting places in the world for betting companies, tech businesses, and marketers.
Africa’s Online Gaming Market Is Growing Fast
Geoffrey emphasized that online gaming is a very common activity in Africa. Many players are transitioning from conventional offline betting practices, whether walk-in stores or ATL and BTL promotions, to online gaming in many regions. The following factors are driving this adoption:
- Growing use of smartphones
- Cheap internet packages
- Increased digital literacy
- The rise of content creators and influencers
And the result is a huge trend shift towards mobile-first gaming. This means that Operators and Platforms need to focus on having a clear user experience, smoother onboarding, and consistent customer service if they want to see players engage for the long term.
Affiliates playing a key role in driving traffic
Geoffrey made a strong point on affiliate marketing—which is when people earn money by promoting a product, which will be the main way the online betting industry (iGaming) expands in Africa starting in 2025. This growth is fueled because the people doing the marketing, especially Influencers, really understand their local communities and who to talk to. They use the trust they already have with their followers to convince people to try the betting sites, essentially becoming highly effective, trusted salespeople. Together, they help brands drive performance-based traffic that is more cost-efficient. Since retaining players is often more expensive than acquiring them. Hence, Affiliate-driven acquisition becomes an effective way to balance overall marketing costs.
According to Geoffrey, “Affiliate is the thing. Affiliate is what works for everyone.”
This is especially true in countries where players rely heavily on reviews, explainer content, and influencer recommendations before placing a bet.
But affiliates can only succeed when they have reliable tracking tools. Operators can measure clicks, conversions, fraud, ROI, and lifetime value with the help of platforms like Affnook or other attribution systems.
Top African Markets to Watch in 2025
Africa isn’t one single market. It’s a collection of diverse countries, each with its own regulations, player behavior, and betting culture.
In Africa’s iGaming world, Geoffrey noticed a few countries really lead the way. South Africa is the most developed and organized, since people use the internet a lot, spending good money, and having clear, steady rules. Nigeria is right behind them, with a huge number of people who bet often, especially on sports, which makes it an ideal place for influencers and affiliate marketers to succeed. Kenya is also a major player because almost everyone uses mobile money for transactions and loves online sports betting. Here, affiliates are crucial for showing people how to bet online. Besides these big three, many other smaller countries are quickly getting into the game and growing fast.
Ethiopia, with its huge population and growing digital reach, shows immense potential, while Tanzania, Uganda, and Ghana are seeing steady growth in online betting and casino interest. Even Somaliland, though not fully regulated, is showing unexpected betting activity. As Geoffrey stated: “The future is Africa. If you’re not in Africa, start thinking about it.”
Why Having an Affiliate Platform Is Non-Negotiable?
Geoffrey stressed that having a proper affiliate platform is no longer optional, it’s essential for anyone entering the African iGaming market. Operators require reliable tracking tools to keep track of visits, signups, and deposits, combat fraud, manage payouts seamlessly, and segment users.
A solid platform also significantly contributes to ease of working at scale with influencers and publishers, in addition to higher overall acquisition ROI. Affnook, for example, provides operators with clarity on where their users are coming from and how much each user is worth. Without this level of tracking and transparency, brands are essentially “flying blind” and end up wasting money on campaigns they can’t properly measure.
Retention Starts With Customer Experience
While acquisition is important, Geoffrey pointed out a key truth- The cost of retention is higher than the cost of acquisition. It is really important to acquire the customers, it’s really necessary to maintain consistency in your product.
Getting a player to sign up is just the first step, the real challenge is keeping them engaged. To make players stay, the platform has to feel simple, smooth, and enjoyable. They should get exciting bonuses, fast support when they need help, and quick, hassle-free withdrawals. On top of that, the overall user experience should be clean and effortless, so every time placing a bet feels easy and enjoyable.
If the platform fails even one of these, players quickly shift to competitors.
Final Thoughts: Africa’s iGaming Future Is Bright
The SiGMA 2025 conversation made one thing clear, Africa is becoming a global hub for iGaming. Since more people in Africa are using the internet, there are lots of strong influencers making content, and millions of young people are signing up for online services, the entire continent is a huge opportunity. This is great news for the betting companies (operators), the people who promote them (affiliates), and the technology companies. If you are looking for new markets or trying to build a strong system for getting new customers, you absolutely need to be paying attention to Africa now and in the coming years.
