Just a little while ago, in the beginning of 2021 Parimatch Nigeria have announced that they are coming back after a fairly long period of being away. Later the same year they opened their new website and started accepting Nigerian players, this is also when you might have started seeing them on our website.
Everything went seemingly well, over time they were adding more and more sports and started supporting more and more local payment methods. We did not see any significant complaints about the quality of their betting product or the service in general, so it is safe to assume that players were generally happy.
Nevertheless, if you try opening their website now you will see that it brings you to a static page with a message saying “Our Brand New Site is Coming Soon”. How soon is it going to happen – it is not clear, however the same page allows you to subscribe to their mailing list and receive and update once they are live.
Why is Parimatch Closed?
It is not entirely clear why they decided to close and rebuild their website, yet they definitely had some really good reasons.
Way back when they first started working in Nigeria, they had to close down due to regulatory issues. We tried to look into this now and it seems that their license is still valid, so it must be something else. The license itself can be seen on the National Lottery Regulatory Commission’s website, which states that it is valid up until the 30th August 2026, so for 4 more years.
We reached out to Parimatch to see if they could give us any information as to what is the reason behind them being closed. Of course, they can’t really share any specific details of what exactly happened, however we were able to get something, please see the picture below.
As you can see, it appears that there were some technical limitations on their old website, which were highly desired by players. It is not clear what those were, but most likely it was somehow related to payments and / or other types of financial transactions.
When did this Happen?
We first noticed the Nigerian website being down in the beginning of April, so that is likely when they decided to close down the website.
What Happened with Your Account and Funds?
Parimatch should have given all active players a notice in advance. If you had an account – you should have been aware of them planning to close, so withdrawing your remaining money was the only logical thing to do.
Still don’t worry if you somehow missed this while still having money in your player account. Simply send an email to their support address and you should be able to get your money back.
Right now, it is not known whether existing accounts will be transferred to the new website once it is live. If you don’t have any funds in your account, that should not really matter anyway – even if they won’t be moved over, you can always just create a new one.
Where to Bet in the Meanwhile?
There are many good Nigerian betting sites out there, a lot of them we have already covered in detail. Nevertheless, we can give you a short list of bookmakers, which we like and trust, so that you can pick the one which suits you best.
BetBonanza
This is a well-known and respected Nigerian betting brand and you have likely heard about them. If you enjoyed playing at Parimatch – we are fairly certain that you are going to like BetBonanza. The cool thing about them is that they frequently switch up their bonus offers, so there is always something interesting to look forward to. If you want to learn more about them – you are welcome to read our full BetBonanza review, otherwise go ahead and visit their website.
Parpesa
Paripesa is one of our favorite Nigerian betting sites – they have everything you might want from a bookmaker and even more. Their welcome offer is generous and comes with wagering requirements that are actually possible to fulfill and all existing players get a top-up bonus every week. They have more sports, markets and tournaments than Parimatch used to have, so there is no shortage of betting opportunities here. Obviously, there is much more to Paripesa than we can fit into one paragraph, so feel free to check our Paripesa review page.
1xBet
1xBet is probably the most famous betting brand in the world and as you may know, they have a Nigerian website. Of course, they have their own drawbacks, but if you think about it – millions of players visit them every day and some players are bound to have a bad experience. Therefore, you might have seen some negative reviews.
Nevertheless, 1xBet has a top-notch betting product – they cover thousands of games every day and offer more betting markets than you can think of. In addition to that, they also have live streams of all top-tier football games, which all players can watch for free. You can register 1xBet in Nigeria in just 1 minute and you will be all set to start betting.
Bet Responsibly
As always, we would like to take a minute and mention how important it is to be in control of your betting hobby. Sports betting is first of all a hobby and it is vital that you always keep this in mind. The main point of betting is to make your favorite sporting event even more exciting – it is not a way to resolve financial difficulties.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are betting more than you can afford or can’t stop – it might be a good idea to look for assistance. We can recommend visiting https://www.gamblingtherapy.org/en – they have support chats, where you can talk with a trained professional. You can also sign up for online group gambling therapy sessions and discuss your issues there. All sessions are free, conducted online and available worldwide.
