By Abdi Ali
Published August 9, 2017
A new lottery is set to benefit football development in Nigeria.
The lottery, known as AfroMillionsLotto, shall support the 20 teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), fund player-development, support stadia and pitch improvement and help improve community-based projects.
AfroMillionsLotto, that is touted as having the largest jackpot anywhere in Africa and is expected to go live in late August 2017, is the initiative of Nigeria-based League Management Company (LMC) in partnership with Ofertas365, a British company.
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“All 20 NPFL clubs are to be branded with their own page on AfroMillionsLotto.com where people can buy tickets online for the twice-weekly draws, as well as enjoy a range of Instant Win games offering big-money prizes,” LMC and Ofertas365 say. “The benefit for the clubs is that each will receive a percentage of the revenue raised from their lottery site.”
Shehu Dikko, the chair of LMC, describes AfroMillionsLotto as ‘one of the most exciting commercial developments in club football in Nigeria in recent times and suggested that it would positively impact football financing extensively’.
“The LMC bought into this partnership because of its realistic potential to revolutionise our clubs’ commercial operations, thanks to the money lotto will bring in. Lotto has proven to be extremely successful with English Premier League clubs and we hope to replicate its success here in Nigeria,” Dikko says.
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On his part James Leppard, CEO of Ofertas365, says, “We are delighted to work with Africa’s largest and most prestigious football league in launching AfroMillionsLotto, which will offer players, whether they are football fans or not, the ability to win truly life-changing jackpots.”
