Burdened by steep processing fees in Africa, igaming and sports betting multinational Super Group announced, in November 2025, a plan to introduce a digital currency, ZAR Supercoin (ZARSC), in South Africa.
The phased rollout in the giant’s top market globally started with a soft beta launch in mid-April for the group’s Betway South Africa clients, Super Group CEO Neal Menashe, said during its Q1 earnings call on 12 May. With processing fees being Super Group’s single biggest after-tax expense, a wider adoption of cryptocurrency could help cut the expenses it bears on the continent.
“Remember,” Menashe said during the call, “to remind everyone in Africa, our single biggest after-tax expense are these processing fees, especially on the sportsbook, where depositing in, cashing out, redepositing in, this in and out of the same money costs a lot of money. So that ecosystem, we are getting right.”
Africa is the linchpin of Super Group’s business. It said in February that its revenue for the year rose by $396.8 million year-on-year to $2.2 billion, due to strong performance in Africa, which saw a 27% jump in GGR. South Africa, the continent’s largest and most industrialised economy, typically accounts for between 30% and 39% of total group revenue.
The ZARSC, which is being used as a payment option for the group’s Betway sportsbook brand, is operating under the group’s new division, Super Money SA. It was listed on Luno, a major cryptocurrency exchange with top South African bank ABSA Group holding custody of its fiat currency backing reserves at 1-1 to the local currency, the Rand. The Supercoin was deployed on the Solana blockchain, while Chainalysis is providing compliance solutions.
Moore Blockchain and Digital Assets, a South African audit and advisory group, said in a ZARSC Reserve Report dated 11 May, that as of 30 April, there was ZARSC 4,027,042 in circulation (equivalent to $241,547.11). Fair value of assets held in reserve at the bank amounted to R5,417,804.44 (equivalent to $325,110.92).
This means that as of the snapshot date, the reserve coverage ratio was 134.54%, indicating that the value of reserve assets identified exceeded the circulating supply, Moore said in the report. Announcing the plan in November, Super Group said Africa’s stablecoin volumes would amount to $100 billion in key markets.
Crypto payments more cost-effective
Wendy Rosenbrg, head of the digital media and electronic communications practice at Werksmans Attorneys in Johannesburg, South Africa, tells iGB that bettors are increasingly using crypto to fund their accounts to place bets on licensed betting sites and on illegal offshore betting sites. They are using crypto both as their general payment mechanism and/or in circumstances where their credit card transactions fail.
“Crypto provides a more cost-effective payment mechanism for licensed bookmakers to receive bets, in contrast to high transaction fees charged by payment service providers,” she says.
“Illegal offshore gambling sites leverage crypto to bypass regulatory mechanisms, as crypto currently operates outside the centralised banking clearing system. These offshore sites can use crypto to evade banks blocking transactions to illegal offshore sites, as well as avoid KYC requirements. This is obviously a concern given the extent of illicit gambling in South Africa and its many adverse consequences.”
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa’s financial sector regulator, recognises crypto as a financial product, which puts it within the jurisdiction of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS). Crypto asset service providers must obtain a licence under the FAIS Act, and the FSCA can monitor compliance with financial regulations and take enforcement action.
Although crypto bettors in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent generally benefit from quicker transaction processing times, lower transaction fees, avoiding the burden of know your customer (KYC) requirements and requirements to share personal information, and anonymity, they sometimes pay more on certain crypto platforms, including during peak times.
Anonymity of crypto becoming less appealing?
But crypto still only plays a supplementary role, according to a crypto consultant, Stefan Kovach. “It is offering players faster, more secure and more anonymous payment options, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins like USDT leading adoption,” he says.
“In my opinion, the fee argument is the strongest case for crypto in this market. Traditional bank fees exceed R1 even on small transactions, whereas stablecoin payments can be free. That’s a meaningful saving at scale. Beyond fees, near-instant transactions, privacy, and borderless access to international platforms are genuine advantages. On the downside, price volatility, lack of consumer protections on unregulated platforms, and tightening KYC requirements are real concerns. The anonymity appeal is also diminishing as regulators close in.”
The ZARSC stands out from previous crypto-gambling experiments because it is a product of an NYSE-listed structure, Kovach observes. “That institutional credibility could make a real difference,” he adds
Whereas Super Group estimates that stablecoin volumes are around $100 billion on the continent, it is hard to pin down the share of crypto usage in the gambling market, say Angela Itzikowitz and Dylan Martheze, lawyers at ENS Africa’s South African unit. “South African gambling statistics generally track recognised licensed categories such as betting, casinos, bingo and limited payout machines,” they say in a note responding to questions from iGB.
“They do not usually break out crypto-settled gambling, stablecoin-settled gambling or crypto-linked event products as a separate category. Some activity may also take place through offshore platforms, which makes it difficult to measure from domestic regulatory or market data.”
The South African Bookmakers Association, which brings together most licensed operators in the country, recently released findings of a research study it commissioned into gambling activity in the country. It established that illegal platforms make up about 62% of the economy’s online gambling market, with more than R50 billion (around $3 billion) in GGR flowing offshore yearly. Up to 16 million South Africans were active on illegal gambling platforms in 2025.
“For now,” Itzikowitz and Martheze say, “the better view is that crypto is commercially and legally relevant, but not yet a separately measurable part of South Africa’s licensed gambling market. Any credible estimate would need operator-level data, payment-flow data, licensing information or regulator-level reporting.”
Crypto gambling expansion across Africa
Speaking during the 12 May call, Menashe noted that the group would be patient as it assesses how the ZARSC pilot will progress ahead of possible rollouts in other markets on the continent. “We’re just going to be patient with the ZAR Supercoin and see how it goes,” he noted.
“In other markets we obviously will bring it there once we’ve seen how it works in South Africa, and there’s different legislation. Obviously, we also have the legislation in other seven markets in Africa, and we hope to bring it there as soon as we get this part right in South Africa. That’s very encouraging. It’s something new. It’s new for the consumer. So, let’s see how we go.”
Kovach highlights that some reports suggest players in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda are turning to crypto to bypass banking restrictions and cross-border fees. Ghana enacted its Virtual Asset Service Providers law in December 2025, which could give its own betting market a boost.
“West Africa, Nigeria and Ghana especially, is where the next wave of crypto gambling activity is most likely to crystallise, driven by currency instability and mobile-first populations,” he tells iGB.
Looking into the future and the wider African market, Itzikowitz, Martheze, and Kovach emphasise the need for greater regulatory clarity as one of the main factors to stimulate deeper adoption of cryptocurrencies on the continent’s gambling and betting market. “Operators would need comfort on gambling law, crypto-asset regulation, AML [anti-money laundering] obligations, tax, exchange control and consumer protection before adopting stablecoins at scale,” per Itzikowitz and Martheze.
“Until there are public operator announcements or regulator-level data, it is too early to describe stablecoin adoption as a wider South African market trend.”
South African current law is relevant but incomplete, Kovach argues. “The FSCA declared crypto assets as financial products in 2022 and has been licensing Crypto Asset Service Providers since 2023,” he says.
“That covers the crypto side. But online casino gambling remains largely banned, and the Remote Gambling Bill has yet to reach the voting stage, a process that could still take years. In my view, the core problem is that two regulatory silos, the FSCA for crypto and the National Gambling Board for gaming, aren’t yet talking to each other coherently. Until that changes, crypto gambling will continue operating in a grey area,” Kovach concludes.
Regulated crypto gambling is gaining traction in other global markets, particuarly in Europe. The UK Gambling Commission has said it would consider allowing crypto payments for online gambling if a profficient regulatory framework is established by the government.
Some markets have made much more advanced developments than others in Europe. But the consensus is, the march towards regulated crypto gambling is already occurring.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/crypto-gambling/south-africa-crypto-gambling-revolution/
