lawyer who knows the gaming industry like the back of his palmI’m a lawyer by training, an entertainment lawyer. I’m the founder of Law Allianz, which is an entertainment law firm based in Lagos. I got into gaming in 2006/2007. I was acting as a lawyer to some South Africans who had invested in a pension company.
Shortly after that, having done lots of work, travelling from Abuja to Lagos to do lots of work – get licences and other stuff like that; that’s when I eventually moved to Lagos to finally settle and get more involved in the industry, advising clients, working with regulators, lots of companies seeking legal opinion on Nigeria. Not just that, again, it can be extended beyond Nigeria to other African countries. So that journey has led me to advise clients across Africa.
Of course, many other people have come into the industry now, but I was one of the first people to give them advice. Before then, I had encountered the National Lottery, which was when I was in Abuja in 2008/2009 when they were trying to regulate the casino business. We basically worked with the Association of Casino Operators. The industry has moved from then on. We did some work, and we will continue to do this, both officially and unofficially.
Some gaming operators argue that having both federal and state licences is unwise. What is your view? You know I wear so many caps. As I said, if you went through my keynote address, I think it was very profound. It addresses so many situations there. So I can understand why ‘national’ would say that they. So what they have in Kaduna is the Pro-City soccer league. In terms of the stadium, it was about the football team itself.
So, you have to look at the industry in a converged state. Eight years ago, look at gaming or sports betting or lottery or whatever it is on its own. But now, it is part of the media. Now it is technology. Now it is game development. Now it’s data collection. So you must look at it in a converged state, and the value chain has moved significantly, so when it comes to the issue of regulation, you might not even know where to stop or continue.