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Performance Marketing
EliteBet Sportsbook was entering the African sports betting market — Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana — with no local brand recognition and limited understanding of regional acquisition channels. We built a multi-channel paid acquisition engine spanning Google, Meta, and programmatic networks with locally resonant creative, mobile-first landing pages optimized for low-bandwidth environments, and market-specific payment integrations that dramatically reduced registration friction.
EliteBet Sportsbook was entering the African sports betting market — Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana — with zero local brand recognition and a product built primarily for European users. The challenges were substantial: mobile penetration in these markets exceeded 85% but most users accessed the internet on low-cost Android devices with limited bandwidth.
Standard European-style landing pages with heavy graphics and multi-step registration flows resulted in 75% bounce rates during initial testing. Local payment methods — mobile money (M-Pesa in Kenya, MTN Mobile Money in Ghana) and bank transfers in Nigeria — were essential but not yet integrated.
Additionally, each market had distinct regulatory requirements: Nigeria's National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Kenya's Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), and Ghana's Gaming Commission each demanded specific advertising disclosures, responsible gambling messaging, and local entity structures.
The board had allocated $850K in monthly ad spend and expected 18K+ first-time depositors per month across all three markets, with a blended CPA under $45.
We built a market-by-market acquisition engine with every element customized for African mobile-first users. Technical Foundation (weeks 1-4): we rebuilt EliteBet's landing pages as lightweight, mobile-optimized experiences — sub-1.5-second load times on 3G connections, single-screen registration flows, and prominent local payment method branding.
Nigeria got dedicated Paystack and bank transfer integration, Kenya received M-Pesa-optimized deposit flows with USSD fallback, and Ghana got MTN Mobile Money and AirtelTigo Money integration. Each market's pages included all required regulatory disclosures and responsible gambling messaging.
Paid Acquisition (months 1-6): we launched multi-channel campaigns across Google, Meta, and programmatic networks in all three markets simultaneously. Creative was built from scratch for each market — Nigerian campaigns featured Premier League and NPFL content, Kenyan campaigns centered on KPL and athletics, and Ghanaian campaigns highlighted GPL and Black Stars content.
All creative was designed for mobile-first consumption with bold visuals, minimal text, and clear call-to-action buttons optimized for small screens. We partnered with 12 local sports tipsters and influencers across Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram — 5 in Nigeria, 4 in Kenya, and 3 in Ghana — for ongoing content and exclusive bonus code distribution.
Performance Optimization (months 3-6): we implemented automated bid rules adjusting on 22 signals including device type, network speed, time of day, and match schedules. A/B testing ran across 200+ creative variants per market, and we built custom attribution models accounting for the cross-device journeys common in African markets where users often discover on mobile but deposit via desktop.
Results: monthly ad spend scaled to $850K across all three markets, CPA dropped 42% from initial benchmarks to a blended $38, ROAS reached 4.2x, monthly FTDs exceeded 18K, and EliteBet expanded to 6 total markets by the end of the engagement — adding Tanzania, Uganda, and Mozambique using the same playbook.
Rebuilt all landing pages for sub-1.5-second load on 3G with single-screen registration and local payment integrations — M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, Paystack — for each market.
Produced 200+ creative variants per market featuring local sports content — Premier League and NPFL for Nigeria, KPL for Kenya, GPL for Ghana — all designed for mobile-first consumption.
Partnered with 12 sports tipsters and influencers across Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana on Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram for ongoing content and bonus code distribution.
Built custom attribution models for African markets where users often discover on mobile but deposit via desktop, ensuring accurate CPA measurement and bid optimization.
“We tried to launch in Africa with our European playbook and it completely failed. The mobile-first redesign and local payment integrations changed everything — bounce rates dropped from 75% to under 20%, and we hit 18K FTDs faster than we expected. The local influencer partnerships gave us credibility we couldn't have bought with ads alone.”
EliteBet Sportsbook was entering the African sports betting market — Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana — with no local brand recognition and limited understanding of regional acquisition channels. We built a multi-channel paid acquisition engine spanning Google, Meta, and programmatic networks with locally resonant creative, mobile-first landing pages optimized for low-bandwidth environments, and market-specific payment integrations that dramatically reduced registration friction.
