It’s still too early to gauge what impact the UK’s new tax regime is having on Super Group’s operations, but given how much the Betway owner is focusing on Africa, it may not be too fazed anyway.

Super Group published its Q1 financials late on Wednesday afternoon, revealing revenue of $612m (£452.4m). On Thursday, Neal Menashe, Chief Executive Officer of Super Group, alongside other C-level figures, took questions from analysts on a webcast.

“It only kicked in on 1 April, so we’re only a couple of weeks in,” Menashe said, responding to a question about the firm’s outlook in the UK’s new era of 40% taxes on online gambling.

“The marketing rates will start coming down when everyone starts doing their numbers, they will have to get used to this new world of taxes and obviously we have to be efficient. 

“That’s part of our two segments, being International and Africa … and bringing international together has given us that operating leverage.”

Super Group not turning back on Europe

The segments Menashe mentioned refers to what is on the surface a mundane corporate action by Super Group. 

In its announcement on Wednesday, the firm revealed that it would be dividing its reporting into two new segments – Africa and International, having previously reported results based on the Betway sportsbook and Spin casino brands.

Super Group stated that the change is a result of a ‘shift in strategic focus to regional performance and market-specific dynamics’. 

Menashe added on yesterday’s call that the approach “highlights the distinct operating models across all regions” and asserted that it would give shareholders “deeper insight into each units’ drivers and growth potential”.

So why is this significant? It’s significant because of Africa, which has fast become Super Group’s most important continent, with Betway in particular having set up a solid position in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Botswana, among others.

Super Group is known for being a company that picks and chooses carefully. If a market isn’t working out, the group isn’t afraid to cut its losses and leave, as was the case in the US, while it was also notable as one of the biggest European players to avoid launching in Brazil.

This doesn’t mean that Super Group is turning its back on Europe, or its founding market of the UK – despite the rising taxes in Europe’s largest market and expected impact this will have on the betting industry’s dynamics.

“I think in Europe, as we exited countries where we didn’t see past profitability – with the US being one, Belgium, Italy etc – we focused on the UK, Spain and Ireland,” Menashe said.

“If you take the UK as an example, we are dropping more product enhancements, the brand is well known, we are seeing the stickiness of our customers, our marketing has been really driving record acquisition, and finally, the Betway product can now start competing head on with our major competitors.

“The same in Spain, we’ve got the focus on casino and new stuff happening there, and Ireland as well. It’s about the front office being the product and our brilliant back office coming together.

“Then in Africa we have got a brilliant product and we’ve got a backoffice, we’re improving the backoffice to make it as good as the International side, and we if we get all of those two worlds working, that’s when you see nirvana and that’s when you see our retention rates etc, increasing.”

Super Group ready to ‘build or buy’ in Africa

It’s clear that it’s not all about Africa for Super Group. According to Menashe, there is ‘huge cross pollination’ between the new International side of its business and its Africa side, and Alinda van Wyck, Chief Financial Officer, asserted that the new reporting structure is ‘not heavily weighted’ to Africa.

The expectation probably was that it was very heavily weighted towards Africa,” she said. “But saying that, this gives us the ability to have really strong possibilities, to still have that market margin expansion, and we always do it in two kinds of strategies. 

“One is our return on investment – how we make sure the marketing spend in that jurisdiction is very localised, that it’s bespoke for customers and we see strong returns on it. Secondly, our product mixes – getting that product fit for purpose for the local market and getting the piercings right. That really helps us with the expansion not just in South Africa, but the rest of Africa.”

Super Group is far from the only major multinational to have taken an interest in Africa. Kaizen Gaming, one of the biggest gaming firms in Greece, launched its Betano brand in Ghana earlier this year, making the West African nation its 20th active market.

UK high street household name Betfred also has a presence in South Africa, evoke maintains its stake in the 888AFRICA joint venture with businessman Christopher Coyne, London-based Kingmakers runs the BetKing brand in Nigeria and SuperSportBet in South Africa, and international giant bet365 is active across various nations.

There are also numerous local firms to consider such as South Africa’s Sun International and HollywoodBets, as well as Nigeria’s Bet9ja.

Rising access to the internet and mobile phones, growing economies and consumer spending power is making Africa an attractive destination for many companies. 

There are of course responsibility concerns to highlight here too, however, with some in South Africa raising concern about the industry’s growing size, while the nation also continues to experience extremely high poverty levels.

Finally, regulations are often subject to constant shifts, particularly in countries where changes in government are frequent. The same can be said for taxation, with a new regime introduced last year in Kenya, one of Africa’s biggest betting markets, for example.

Nonetheless, these factors haven’t dampened Super Group’s confidence – and the figures show why, with Q1 revenue up 24% from $201m in 2025 to $267m this year (£197.3m).

According to Menashe, responding to an analyst yesterday, Nigeria is a particularly interesting market for the company.

“We’ve been on the ground there, it’s super interesting,” Menashe said. “I think what we have seen in the African continent, and maybe led by Nigeria, is that the country as a whole is doing much better. The free flow of the currencies is improving. 

“So we have to double, triple our business size there, at least, right? It’s the largest population in Africa. It’s a growing TAM (tangible asset market), and we are getting our product right and that. We can build or buy … and we can do both, so it’s really top of our mind.”