The head of SA’s largest mobile operator says online gambling, which is growing explosively, is now a significant and growing source of competition for consumers’ wallets.
Though Vodacom has proven its resilience and adaptability over the years, like most retail consumer-facing businesses it is facing the challenges posed by online betting companies.
“What we’re seeing is that online gambling is increasing. If you look at the gambling companies’ numbers, you can see how quickly it’s accelerating. Online gambling is becoming a bigger issue,” Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub told Business Day.
According to the National Gambling Board of SA, at the end of the 2024/25 period, R1.5-trillion had been wagered in the country’s gambling industry, R400bn, or 36%, higher than the turnover generated in the previous financial year.
Gross gambling revenue (GGR) amounted to R75bn, a 26% increase from the previous year.
“We’re talking about the same consumer wallet. There’s a bigger portion of their spend going towards gambling, which means less money to spend on other goods. Generally, though, telcos are more resilient; people still buy airtime,” Joosub said.
The local online gambling market is dominated by Betway, Hollywoodbets, Playa Bets and Easybet.
Boitumelo Mahudu, equity analyst at M&G Investments, notes that until 2020 SA’s gambling market was mainly dominated by casinos, which accounted for 56% of GGR.
Since March 2025 online betting accounts for 70% of the market.
“In the few years since Covid-19, this trend has only accelerated. This is not a case of regular gamblers adopting digital channels — the industry has clearly attracted a new and younger clientele, potentially initially introduced to gambling by sports-related betting,” said Mahudu.
“High smartphone penetration, increased access to data and declining data prices (all generally positive developments) coupled with the pervasive level of betting advertising explain the staggering growth that this industry has achieved.”
Joosub said Vodacom was working to stave off the competition and attract more customers to the network through “compelling offers” with promotions on smart devices.
To make smartphones cheaper to access, Vodacom has devised an offering that enables customers to buy devices by paying as little as R6.50 a day.
Once a customer has a device, the next part of the equation is driving them to buy and use more services such as voice and data, and increasingly financial services such as microloans.
Even though the gambling industry was growing, Vodacom is “not going to go [directly] into the sector soon”, said Joosub.
Still, Vodacom does sell vouchers through its VodaPay platform. “We sell vouchers, [such as] Betway, and we’ll [soon] be selling Hollywoodbets as well … just like we sell water, electricity, airtime and various other services,” he said.
“But we’re not offering credit for gambling and we haven’t integrated it into any of our systems besides being able to buy vouchers.”
Globally, betting and gambling, especially in sports, are rising. In the US, the industry has received a huge boost as the market has become more liberalised. Betting on sports is now legal in 38 states. Missouri is set to become the 39th state in 2025 with the District of Columbia to follow.
US legislators are mulling how to regulate the sector at a national-federal level, given the increased participation in what is now estimated to be a $10bn industry.
Policymakers in Africa are also expected to start contemplating the same issue as more people take up betting, driven largely by the internet.
For the six months ended September. Vodacom reported a 13.6% increase in normalised revenue to R65.8bn, which is tracking above the group’s medium-term target.
Headline earnings per share were up 32.3% to 467c, and the board declared an interim dividend of 330c per share, consistent with the group’s dividend policy of paying shareholders at least 75% of headline earnings.
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