In this exclusive interview, Christophe Casanova, CEO of Honoré Gaming, discusses the company’s strategic expansion across French-speaking Africa and Central America, two regions that have become key pillars of its growth strategy. Casanova shares how Honoré Gaming identified underserved markets with strong demand for sports betting and explains the importance of building technology tailored to local realities rather than adapting solutions designed for mature European markets.
Offering valuable insights into emerging gaming markets, this interview provides a closer look at the strategies, innovations, and market dynamics shaping the future of sports betting in some of the industry’s fastest-growing regions.
Honoré Gaming has built a strong presence in French-speaking Africa and Central America. What initially drew you to these markets?
What drew us in was a combination of opportunity and the fact that these regions were, frankly, underserved. When we first travelled across West Africa back in the early 2010s, we found a young, sports-mad population with a real appetite for betting particularly on football yet very few credible operators to choose from. The brands that were live tended to be European propositions that had simply been lifted and dropped into the market without any localisation. They had heavy front-ends that devoured bandwidth, they crashed on older handsets, and they took no account of how people actually pay or place a bet on the ground.
We saw the same pattern in French-speaking markets specifically: a shared language and a familiarity with French horse racing through the PMU, but no one was building technology designed for the realities of the region. Latin America came later and for similar reasons emerging, fast-growing, and crying out for a platform built for local conditions rather than retrofitted from Europe. We deliberately chose to build for these markets first rather than treat them as an afterthought, and that has been our differentiator ever since.
What key differences do you see between African and Central American betting behaviours?
The headline similarity is the passion for football, but the texture of the two markets is quite different. In much of French-speaking Africa, betting is deeply social and still heavily anchored in retail agents, kiosks and shops play an enormous role, and the journey to online and mobile is happening on the back of that physical network. Cash remains central, mobile money is the dominant payment rail, and there is a strong culture around French horse racing and the pari-mutuel format that you simply don’t find elsewhere.
Central America tends to be a little further along on the smartphone curve, with card and wallet usage somewhat more established and a betting culture that leans towards local football leagues, major European competitions and a healthy interest in American sports given the proximity to the United States. Stake sizes, the rhythm of betting through the week and the appetite for in-play also differ. The lesson for us is that you cannot run a single playbook across both what works in Brazzaville won’t necessarily translate to a market in Central America, and pretending otherwise is how operators come unstuck.
Africa is often described as one of the fastest-growing betting markets. What are the real drivers behind this growth? What are the biggest opportunities and challenges you anticipate?
The genuine drivers are structural rather than hype. You have an exceptionally young population, deep football fandom arguably more intense than in Europe, rising smartphone penetration, and the spread of mobile money, which has solved the payments problem in a way cards never could. Put those together and you have the conditions for sustained growth rather than a flash in the pan.
The opportunity exists for those operators who localise properly: lightweight products that work on low-spec devices and patchy networks, the right payment rails, and content that reflects local tastes. There is also real room in adjacent verticals virtual sports, lottery, casino and fixed-odds horse racing for operators who can offer them from a single platform.
The challenges are equally real. Regulation is the big one: it is fragmented, inconsistent, and in some markets effectively absent, which makes risk management absolutely critical. Payments integration is another persistent hurdle getting reliable API documentation and stable connections can be a long, frustrating process. And of course there is the responsibility dimension, which only grows in importance as these markets mature.
How do you ensure a seamless betting experience in regions where smartphones may be low-spec devices?
By designing for the lowest common denominator from the outset rather than treating it as a compromise. Our front-ends are deliberately lightweight, we keep the data footprint small, we are disciplined about page weight, and we test relentlessly on the legacy Android devices that are genuinely prevalent across these regions, not just on the latest flagship handset sitting on a developer’s desk.
Crucially, we don’t assume a smartphone at all. We run a proper multi-channel platform spanning mobile, web, retail agents and USSD/SMS, so a punter can place a bet whether they have a modern handset or a basic feature phone. That breadth is non-negotiable in our markets. A heavy, beautifully animated app is worthless if it crashes on the device most of your customers are actually holding.
What are the main technical challenges involved in developing applications for networks with low bandwidth or unstable connections?
The core challenge is that you cannot assume the connection will hold. So we engineer for intermittency: minimising payload sizes, being ruthless about what data is actually sent over the wire, caching sensibly, and making sure the app degrades gracefully rather than falling over when the signal drops mid-bet.
There is also the question of bet integrity on a flaky connection making certain that a wager placed just as the network blinks is handled cleanly, with no ambiguity about whether it was accepted. Then there is the cost dimension: data is genuinely expensive for many of our players, so a bloated product isn’t just a performance problem, it actively costs the customer money and drives them away. And on the operator side, integrating local payment APIs and data feeds over unreliable infrastructure adds another layer of complexity. The discipline of building light and resilient runs through everything we do.
How do you approach integrating local payment methods in different countries?
Pragmatically and market by market. Mobile money is the backbone across most of French-speaking Africa, so deep, reliable integration with the local wallets Orange Money, MTN MoMo, Waves and so on is the absolute priority. People aren’t reaching for a Visa card; they’re paying from their phone balance, and if you don’t support that smoothly you don’t have a business.
The reality is that this is one of the harder parts of operating here. Getting hold of proper API documentation, securing stable connections, and maintaining those integrations takes persistence and local relationships. We treat payments as a first-class part of the platform rather than a bolt-on, we build redundancy where we can, and we lean on local knowledge in each territory rather than assuming what worked in one country will simply port to the next. In Central America the mix shifts towards cards and wallets, so again it comes back to building for the specific market rather than imposing a template.
What innovations do you see coming in payments that could transform these markets?
The most consequential shift is the continued maturing and interoperability of mobile money. As wallets become easier to use across networks and borders, and as instant transfers become the norm, the friction around depositing and just as importantly withdrawing falls away. Fast, dependable payouts are one of the biggest trust signals in our markets, so anything that makes settlement quicker and more reliable is transformative.
Beyond that, I’d point to the broader push towards instant and account-to-account payment rails, greater smartphone and data accessibility bringing more people into the digital economy, and smarter use of data to reduce fraud and failed transactions. I’d be cautious about over-egging crypto or any single shiny technology; what actually moves the needle here is reliability, low cost and reach. The innovation that wins is the one that lets a punter top up and cash out seamlessly from the phone in their pocket.
How do you adapt content, promotions, and betting markets to local preferences? What are some cultural nuances that international operators often overlook in African markets?
We start from the principle that localisation is far more than translation. It means surfacing the leagues, competitions and bet types people actually care about and that varies enormously by territory. Fixed-odds betting on French horse racing through our PMU partnership matters hugely in some markets and not at all in others. The structure of the product differs too: English-speaking markets emerged first and grew online off the back of shop and franchise networks, whilst French-speaking markets developed through kiosk networks, so the apps and sites genuinely need to look and behave differently.
The nuances international operators tend to miss are the ones that seem small but aren’t: the centrality of cash and the agent network, the social and community dimension of betting, the importance of low data consumption, and the trust that comes from fast, dependable withdrawals. They also underestimate the retail-to-online bridge assuming everyone will simply leap to a slick mobile app and they overlook how local promotional mechanics and rewards need to feel relevant rather than imported. We work with local knowledge in each market and shape our engagement strategies around real player behaviour, which is precisely why we’ve invested in CRM and gamification tailored to these regions.
Events like the World Cup bring massive spikes in activity. How do you convert that into long-term engagement? Do player behaviours during major tournaments differ significantly from regular periods?
Behaviour during a major tournament is totally different. You see a surge of more casual punters, much higher volumes, greater in-play activity and a lot of first-time depositors drawn in by the occasion. The risk is treating that spike as the win in itself. It isn’t; it’s an acquisition moment.
Converting it into something lasting comes down to what you do in the weeks after the final whistle. That means having the CRM and loyalty mechanics in place to bring those players back well-judged rewards, a tiered loyalty programme, relevant follow-up around the domestic and European leagues that carry on long after the tournament ends. It also means making sure the experience during the spike is flawless, because a customer whose bet failed or whose withdrawal was slow during the World Cup won’t return for the league season. The infrastructure has to hold up under load, and the engagement strategy has to be ready to catch those players the moment the tournament is over. That post-event retention work is where the real value is created.
How do you balance rapid growth with ethical responsibility and regulatory compliance?
I don’t see them as opposing forces, although I understand why the question is framed that way. Growth that ignores responsibility and compliance isn’t sustainable growth; it’s borrowed time. Our view is that doing this properly is what earns you the right to operate in these markets over the long term.
On the regulatory side, we’re realistic that the landscape is fragmented and immature in places, so we hold ourselves to strict standards even where local rules don’t yet compel us to. Rigorous, algorithm-led risk management protects both us and our operator partners, particularly given the weaker legal recourse in some territories. On the ethical side, responsible gambling jeu responsable has to be built into the product rather than bolted on, and we take that seriously as these markets mature and the player base broadens. As a B2B provider we also carry a responsibility to equip our operators with the right tools to look after their customers. Ultimately, reputation and trust are the currency in emerging markets. Move fast, yes, but never at the expense of the credibility that makes the business durable.
