betPawa Expands in Nigeria with Choplife Gaming Deal

In Short

• pawaTech Group has signed a four-year licensing agreement with Choplife Gaming to expand betPawa into Nigeria.
• The partnership extends an existing “upfront licence fee” model across six African markets.
• The companies say they will co-invest and tailor betPawa’s platform and payments setup for Nigerian users.

What Happened

pawaTech Group is pushing betPawa’s Nigeria expansion through a new four-year licensing agreement with Choplife Gaming. betPawa is an online sports betting and iGaming brand, which means it offers betting, virtual games, and casino-style games through a digital platform.

Under the deal, Choplife Gaming has acquired the rights for Nigeria and will operate the betPawa brand locally under a licence. The companies said they will continue using an upfront licence fee model, which is a structure where the local operator pays a fee in advance to use the brand and platform, rather than a pure revenue-share arrangement.

pawaTech said the same model has been extended for another four years in five existing markets where Choplife already operates the betPawa brand, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Benin, and Ghana. That brings the total to six markets under Choplife’s operation.

pawaTech’s executive chairman, Kresten Buch, said the companies will co-invest in Nigeria and further enhance the platform for the market. He also pointed to fintech-style rails inside the product, including mobile money and instant payments, which are fast digital ways to move money, similar to a bank transfer that confirms quickly.

Why It Matters

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest market by population and one of its most competitive regulated betting environments. A four-year licence term gives pawaTech and Choplife time to invest in distribution, compliance, and product localisation.

The emphasis on instant payments matters because betting platforms live or die on trust. If deposits and withdrawals are slow or unreliable, users churn.

The timing also adds context. pawaTech Services Limited recently announced the closure of its Rwanda services hub, alongside regulatory and tax challenges involving betPawa’s Rwandan operator and the Rwanda Revenue Authority. Expanding into Nigeria may help balance market exposure, but it also raises the stakes on getting licensing, tax handling, and payments compliance right from day one.

For bettors comparing brands, betPawa is now positioning Nigeria as its next major growth market after scaling to 17 African markets in total, according to the company.