Bola Group launches WhatsApp betting platform Chatbet in Africa

Bola Group has unveiled Chatbet, a WhatsApp-native sports activities betting product it says is the primary of its type in Africa.

Powered by ChatLayer Media Applied sciences, Chatbet allows gamers to obtain odds and place bets by both sending a message or voice observe on WhatsApp.

The platform eliminates the necessity for app downloads, net browsers or data-intensive betting interfaces.

Chatbet is accessible throughout all main sports activities, with the product designed particularly for the African market.

The launch comes as operators throughout the continent proceed to hunt new methods to succeed in clients in markets the place smartphone penetration is rising however knowledge prices stay a major impediment. It’s first stay market is Zambia, with the plan to roll out in Zimbabwe and Malawi sooner or later.

Bola Group CEO Hilton Hasson described the launch as a milestone for each the corporate and the broader African betting trade.

“Our groups have spent six months engaged on one thing that has by no means existed in Africa earlier than,” Hasson mentioned. “WhatsApp is already in everybody’s pocket, knowledge prices make conventional platforms a barrier and sports activities betting on this market continues to be massively underserved digitally, and Chatbet solves all three.

“It is a large step ahead for sports activities betting in Africa.”

Chatbet launched forward of the World Cup

Hasson added that the timing of the launch forward of the FIFA 2026 World Cup was deliberate.

It varieties a part of Bola Group’s broader buyer acquisition technique and long-term imaginative and prescient for on-line betting throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

“The truth that it launches because the World Cup kicks off is not any accident,” Hasson continued.

“That is the most important sporting occasion on the planet and we’re the one operator on this continent the place a fan can place a guess through a voice observe.”