African Gaming Forum to review regulation and market growth across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia on September 30 in Lisbon

The African Gaming Forum will bring industry leaders together on Wednesday, September 30 at the Myriad Hotel in Lisbon to discuss how gaming in Africa can grow as regulations, taxes, and market structures keep shifting. For PSPs, acquirers, and operators, the useful part is simple: the forum is splitting Africa into actual jurisdictions, not treating the continent like one giant compliance headache.

1. The event is invite-only and will run as a full-day forum with sessions focused on Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ethiopia, alongside broader discussions on regulation and expansion. That matters because the operating model, licensing path, and commercial conditions can differ sharply from one market to the next.
2. The opening session, GRAF Regulator Panel: African Gaming Under the Microscope, is organized by Gaming Regulators Africa Forum (GRAF) and will feature Lungile Dukwana (CEO, National Gambling Board, South Africa), Moruntshi Kemorwale (CEO, Gambling Authority Botswana), and Vusi Mtsweni (CEO, Mpumalanga Economic Regulator). Mabutho Zwane (CEO, Eastern Cape Gambling Board and president of GRAF) will moderate.
3. That panel will look at how regulators and operators can build frameworks that support innovation and market growth while strengthening compliance, player protection, and responses to unregulated activity. In high-risk payments terms, that usually means the same old balancing act: more access on paper, tighter controls in practice.
4. A separate CEO panel, Leading the Way – Scaling the Opportunity in Africa, will include Christopher Coyne (CEO, 888Africa), Jeremiah Maangi (founder and CEO, iGaming AFRIKA), Alexandre Paque (CEO, Elephant Bet), Ronnie Whelan (CEO, Kingmakers), and Peter Emolemo Kesitilwe (CEO, African iGaming Alliance). Their discussion is set to cover the main expansion challenges facing operators across the continent.

Rasmus Sojmark, CEO and founder of SBC, said the African gaming industry is developing “at an incredible pace” and that the forum was created so people driving that growth can meet in one place. His other point is the more operationally useful one: Africa is not one market, and the differences are regulatory, commercial, and cultural as much as they are geographic.