European B2B gaming suppliers are expanding aggressively across Africa, but who gets the power when deals are done? An investigation into poor renumeration and commission only arrangements, unrealistic targets, weak career progression and the persistent exclusion of Africans from senior decision-making roles, are most times the status quo of most European B2B gaming suppliers.  

As European B2B supplier chase African customers, a harder question is emerging: why are Africans being used to build the pipeline while strategic and executive power remains elsewhere?

Poor Employment Procedures

One of the industry’s uncomfortable realities is the way some African gaming professionals are engaged. Instead of proper employment contracts with competitive salaries, benefits, leave, healthcare and clear career structures, some professionals are reportedly brought in as contractors, consultants or commission-based representatives.

That may reduce costs for suppliers entering Africa but it creates an obvious imbalance: the company gets local expertise, relationships and market access without necessarily assuming the full responsibility of employing and developing the people providing them.

Africa cannot build a serious digital gaming economy on precarious employment. If a professional is expected to represent a company, develop its market, manage relationships and generate revenue consistently, the questions is simple: why is it that most Africans working for European B2B suppliers are not treated as a strategic employee but rather like than an outsourced salesperson.

Ridiculous Monthly Salaries

The remuneration question is even more uncomfortable. There is a growing perception among African professionals that some foreign employers’ approach African professionals as though the employment itself is a favor.

It is not.

African gaming professionals are competing in a sophisticated industry involving technology, payments, compliance, sportbooks platforms, casino systems, data. AI and regulation. Their knowledge has commercial value.

Yet commission-heavy compensation models can shift almost all the commercial risk onto the employee. If a European company wants someone from Africa to build its Africa business, it should invest in that person with a competitive base salary, performance incentives benefits and professional development.

African labour should not be discounted simply because the market is Africa.

Pipeline Builders

This is perhaps the biggest structural problem. African professionals are often most valuable to foreign suppliers when they can open doors. They know regulators. They understand operators. They know local business culture. They have relationships. They can arrange meetings, identify prospects, navigate markets and generate opportunities.

However, what happens after the pipeline is built?

• Who closes the major deals?
• Who controls the regional strategy?
• Who sits at the executive table?
• Who gets promoted?

If Africans are good enough to build the pipeline but not good enough to control the business generated from that pipeline, then the industry has a localization problem disguised as market expansion.

The Three-Month Pressure Cooker

Another issue requiring serious scrutiny is the short probation period. Three -months arrangements can place enormous pressure on professionals expected to enter complex B2B markets and immediately deliver customers. B2B gaming is not fast-moving consumer sales. Deals can involve regulatory approvals, technical integration, due diligence, procurement, compliance, payment and lengthy negotiations.

Expecting a new African market executive to produce substantial revenue within three months is commercially unrealistic. For sportsbook platform providers, casino and aggregators, they demand that you close a tier one operator ion three months.  They give their African employees very unrealistic target.

Companies should measure market development, not just immediate revenue. A professional who establishes ten strategic relationships, develops a qualified pipeline and secures regulatory and commercial introductions is creating enormous value even if the contract is not signed within 90 days.

Where Are the African Decision Makers

This is the question the industry can no longer avoid. How many African -market executives are actually African?

• Not sales representatives.
• Not account managers.
• Not business development managers.

Decision Makers

The persistent use of foreign executives to occupy positions such as ‘’Head of Africa’’ who is a European with the office abroad sometimes without any knowledge of the African market raises an important question whether companies genuinely trust African professionals with strategic responsibilities.

If someone understands the African market, customers, culture, regulatory environment and commercial ecosystem, why should nationality determine whether they can occupy the leadership seat.  Africa needs executives who can make decisions not simply employees who execute decisions made elsewhere.

No Training. No Ladder. No Succession.

A serious African operation requires more than a sales team. Companies should be building African leadership pipeline. That means training, mentorship, executive education, structured promotions and succession planning.

The objective should be simple: hire African talent today, develop African managers tomorrow and produce African executives capable of running the regional business. Importing leadership indefinitely is not localization. It is dependency.

The Cost of the Model

Poor employment structures are not merely an employee problem. They are business problem.

They can produce:

• High employee turnover.
• Loss of institutional knowledge.
• Weak customer relationships.
• Poor market intelligence.
• Lower employee loyalty.
• Reputational risk.
• Weak succession pipelines.
• Increased recruitment costs.

Investors should therefore stop viewing employment practices as an HR footnote. Talent strategy is market strategy.

The Way out

The solution is practical.

First, B2B suppliers operating in Africa should establish African leadership targets for senior regional positions.

Second, commission -only structures should not become the default entry model for professionals expected to perform permanent business functions.

Third, companies should introduce transparent salary bands based on responsibility, experience and market value rather than nationality.

Fourth, probation periods should reflect the actual sales cycle of B2B gaming and not three months.

Fifth, every African operation should have a three-to-five-year leadership succession plan identifying African talents capable of taking executive positions.

Sixth, suppliers should establish formal training budgets covering technology, sales, compliance, regulation, leadership and international business.  

Seventh, African employees should receive proper leave, healthcare support, performance reviews and mechanisms for raising workplace concerns.

Finally, African regulators, industry associations and operators should begin asking suppliers a different question during procurement and partnerships.

What are you investing in Africa beyond selling to Africans?

The industry’s future should not be built on a model where Africa provides customers, relationships and revenue while executive power remains offshore. If Africa is important enough to generate billions in gaming revenue, it should be important enough to produce the executives who manage that revenue.

The gaming industry must challenge the way things have traditionally been done and push for change. The African gaming professionals must challenge the status that keeps them in sales and support roles while strategic leadership remains dominated by foreign executives.