Nigeria's top betting website, Bet9ja gets hacked by Cyber Terroists

Bet9ja is Nigeria's number one betting website. Bet9ja is an online bookmaker company that offers to bet on major sporting events operating in Nigeria. Traded under KC Gaming Networks Limited and run to batteries by shareholders of multiple nationalities, the website is licensed by the Lagos State Lotteries Board (LSLB) with permission to operate in other parts of Nigeria. Bet9ja was co-founded by Ayo Ojuroye and Kunle Soname who are its CEO and chairman respectively.

“a sophisticated criminal cyber-attack”

“Just like so many market-leading global organizations, Bet9ja recently became a victim of a sophisticated criminal cyber-attack, which is restricting customers' access to the platform”  asserted the operator.

“We take this matter extremely seriously,” it said. “Our priority is protecting our customers and you have our assurances that your accounts and all your funds are safe.

“We appreciate your patience and understanding at this difficult time.

“We will be back stronger as soon as is technically possible, rewarding you with a truly sensational bonanza of promotions.”

Ayo Ojuroye, Co-Founder of Bet9ja Speaks about the Hack

Following the recent unjustified criminal cyberattack on its platform, the management of Bet9ja has restated its assurance that all accounts, data, and funds of its clients are secure. The assurance was given through a CEO statement by Ayo Ojuroye, Co-Founder of Bet9ja. The statement read in full:

“The past few days have been challenging for us as a business. In the early hours of Wednesday, April 6, 2022, we suffered an unprovoked and unjustified sophisticated criminal cyber-attack on our platform.

Many of our customers and stakeholders have had to deal with the inconvenience of not being able to access their accounts or place bets on the bet9ja.com platform. On behalf of the management and every member of the team, I would like to apologize for this and express that we deeply regret this situation.

We can confirm that the ransomware attack came from the Blackcat Group. You can find information about cybercriminal organizations online.

As a result of the significant attack on our platform, we have taken steps to reduce and mitigate any risk to our network systems & operations. We have deployed international cyber security and forensic experts to help us analyze and improve our network security and strengthen our operations to be more resilient and secure.

As Nigeria’s leading and foremost sports betting company, we want to assure you that we have taken these steps because we know the importance of protecting you, our customers. I want to assure you that your data is safe and your funds are intact. The security of your data is not compromised even with these attacks.

We are doing everything to get back up in a phased approach. The team has since been working relentlessly to achieve this objective.

At this time, I want to particularly extend a great deal of appreciation to our agents, for sticking with us through this difficult time, they are truly the best-in-class. To our stakeholders, National and State lotteries board, and most importantly our loyal customers, we see your support all over social media, we are indeed grateful. 

Finally, as a proudly Nigerian business and market leader in our industry, we will not be intimidated, bullied, or pressured into submission. At Bet9ja, we are exceptional, we do not claim to have all the answers. Instead, we come together as a community of experts to protect this business we all love as exemplified through our team of professional experts, agents, government stakeholders, and loyal customers. This is our culture.”

What you need to know about the BetNaija hack

The main set of people directly affected by this are punters, people who use Bet9ja for its many betting-related purposes. But beyond the punters, Bet9ja’s unfortunate predicament could prove detrimental to a larger demographic, even those who do not bet.

For context, Bet9ja is not only the biggest betting platform in Nigeria, its site is the third most visited website in Nigeria behind only Google and YouTube, which is an indication of just how big this company is.

Bet9ja’s approach is more physical than online (even though they have a huge online market too), they have hundreds of thousands of shops around the country, which makes them massive employers of labor.

  The shops have been made useless and the agents operating them redundant over the last four days.

Beyond making money for Bet9ja, those shops served other purposes like free viewing centers where people could just walk in and watch football games or whatever else was on TV without paying a dime or having to bet first.

It would take quite a while for other betting companies to match Bet9ja’s reach and socio-cultural impact, flowing from the void their absence made over the past days.