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Five bettors tell us how they started betting.
Sports betting is now mainstream in the country, but we all started from somewhere.
We asked five bettors about their sports betting origin story, and here is what they had to say.
"I started because of my friend," - Stephen
I was in the university, 200 level precisely, before then I had never placed a bet.
I saw my friend displaying theatrics that suggested happiness, and on inquiry, I found out that he had won ₦10,000 from sports betting.
I was intrigued, I knew about sports betting, but I had never paid attention or thought about trying it, but now I wanted to, I wanted to be like my friend.
The next weekend could not come any sooner, as I had decided to try my hands at it.
You could call it beginner's luck, or if you are superstitious,-the devil made sure I won the first one- I won ₦3000 on my first try, and back then that was good money.
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I have not looked back ever since.
"I just like football,"- Tunde
I wish I had a cool story about when and how I started betting, but I do not.
I started betting because I really like football, nothing else, not a moment of epiphany nor a dire need for cash.
I am sure this is the story for many bettors too, as betting feels like a natural evolution from the love of football, just like FPL(Fantasy Premier League).
"Egbon Adugbo led me to it,"- Ejiro
I cannot remember my exact age at the time, but I was in secondary school.
My mum had a shop two streets away from where we lived, and I sometimes had to go there after school.
There was a man on that street who always made me go on errands for him, one of which was to the 1960bet shop at the foot of the street.
My mum must never find out of course, but if I was being honest, that was my favourite errand to run.
He wrote picks from football fixtures on a white paper, folded the paper in two, and lined money in it. All I had to do was take it to the shop, and the attendant knew what to do.
I used to come out of the shop with a different white paper from the one I went in with, a more narrow one, with black print rather than blue ink, the 'ticket' as I came to learn.
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Soon I was going in with an additional paper, mine alongside his.
That was how 'Egbon Adugbo' [A big brother from the neighbourhood] got me into betting.
"Sapa is the reason I got into betting,"- Oyindamola
The jokes got to me, I would be very honest. Those jokes on Twitter where they say if your girlfriend asks you for money, give her ₦1000 and 100 odds.
I was very broke at the time, and I filtered motivation out of the joke. There is nothing that says only men can make money from sports betting.
It also helped that I was on a WhatsApp group where the men on it shared betting codes.
Without telling anyone, I started playing the codes too, I won sometimes and lost a lot of times, but I was making profits.
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Along the way, I started picking games myself too.
The 'Sapa' [state of being broke] is a thing of the past, but I continued betting.
"Peer pressure,"- Dolapo
Everyone was doing it, so I started doing it. I started betting in 2010, and it was because everyone I knew was into it.
It filtered its way into every conversation, my friends were not just talking about football, they were talking about betting too.
I joined them before I knew it.
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