Crypto online gaming, or blockchain game, has changed how traditional online games are played in this era. With the speed of digitalization across the globe, crypto games have seen an increase in popularity over the decade.

Especially in Nigeria, online casinos have now integrated crypto into their services. As the second largest online gambling market in Africa, Nigeria alone accounts for 7% of all gambling revenue in sub-Saharan Africa. The Nigerian gambling industry is estimated to generate $2 billion annually.

While online gambling is legal, it is not appropriately regulated by the federal government. Operating online casinos in Nigeria is illegal, but offshore gambling companies can run their service to target Nigerians. This is why, to make transactions easier, many online casinos offer payment using Bitcoin. Online game enthusiasts now have the option to bet using their crypto tokens, opening up more options to play.

Crypto users can make transactions directly using digital wallets to the gambling site without the assistance of gambling agents. This enables a quicker deposit and withdrawal process with lower fees.

In September 2022, the African play-to-earn crypto gaming community Metaverse Magna (MVM) received funding from Nigerian crypto startup Nestcoin. The $3.2 million funding was intended to build and invest in MVM’s Web3 applications, including crypto platform Breach Club and gaming guild Metaverse Magna.

However, the global crypto industry has been struggling with crypto prices crashing in the past year. Player interest in GameFi, short for gaming finance, which combines the elements of gaming and decentralized finance, has dwindled since 2022. Nestcoin also had to lay off staff last year after the failure of crypto exchange FTX, which held some of its assets.

Despite this, crypto gaming in Africa is still blooming. Binance noted that African tech-savvy young people’s increasing interest in the gaming industry, digital currencies and blockchain technology will lead the blockchain gaming development in Africa.

Game options in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the most competitive betting markets in Africa. Sports betting has been the popular choice of gambling in Nigeria for several decades. The rise of online casinos in Nigeria and legal online bookmarkers like Sportsbet.io is overtaking the land-based casino.

They serve games like online slots, poker, roulette, lottery, and NFT-based games. One of the popular games is a slot game titled Fortune Tiger. This game can be played using crypto like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other popular cryptocurrencies on the market.

Fortune Tiger, developed by PGSoft, is an online slot game with a Chinese zodiac theme. This slot game has one of the highest RTPs and up to five paylines. Players could potentially earn a big jackpot with its progressive jackpot features. The progressive jackpot is a system where the amount of prize will increase with each spin or bet, but not winning a jackpot. Players can win up to 2,500x their bet.

This game has an animated design with a red-framed grid with gold accents decorating the reels. The titular Fortune Tiger can be seen above the reels. The Fortune Tiger also acts as a wild symbol in the reels. The matching Wild symbol will substitute all paying symbols currently in the reels.

Fortune Tigers has a lucky tiger feature where one of the paying symbols is chosen to take part in the round. Players will be rewarded with a free spin when the selected symbols appear on the reels. These features can be triggered as many times as long as players can gain more lucky symbols.

Many crypto games are optimized for mobile phones, so players can enjoy playing this game from anywhere they want as long as they have a steady internet connection. With higher smartphone penetration in Nigeria and other African nations, mobile crypto games may see increased adoption in the future.