From Nigeria to Multiple Markets Across Borders: How SharpPunter Is Changing the Way Punters Analyse Sports

A typical Saturday slip in Nigeria is put together from several places at once: a booking code a tipster posted in a WhatsApp group with no explanation behind it, a few games a friend swore were safe, and, for many fans, their own club, added out of loyalty before anyone has checked its form.

If the code was shared from a bookmaker the punter does not use, he first has to rebuild it on his own bookmaker by hand, one match at a time, and once it is placed, a single one of its twelve games going the wrong way is enough to take down the slip and every version of it shared around the group, a pattern that repeats with codes passed around in Accra, Nairobi and Douala.

SharpPunter, a sports analysis platform built in Nigeria, was set up to give those punters a clearer look at what they are betting on before they place the slip. Six months after its launch in April 2026, it has users across West, East and Southern Africa, works with booking codes from 37 bookmakers and has just released V2, a rebuilt version of its app.

Built in Nigeria, for the way Nigerians bet

“I built SharpPunter because I was tired of seeing people stake their money on tips they had not checked by themselves, and I wanted something that would help punters truly understand which games were worth backing,” said Oluwatobi Abobade, who founded SharpPunter. “Over time, the way people use the product has shaped how we built V2. Users kept tagging our X bot with codes from friends, so checking a code is now one of the two things you see when you open the app. We also saw how closely people follow their own clubs and how often that turns their picks into emotional ones, so V2 lets you follow your club, get updates on its live matches and see the stats, alongside unbiased picks you can use.”

Where slips go wrong, and what SharpPunter does about it

The first problem is the tip itself, since most codes that circulate in group chats arrive with no rationale, and give punters no way to judge whether the picks are valid. Every SharpPunter pick shows the reasoning behind it, such as a team’s recent form or its record against that opponent, and carries a rating of Strong, Fair or Slim, and the Optimizer reads any code a user pastes in and rates each match SharpPunter covers.

The second is the single weak game that usually sinks a whole accumulator, often across every variation of the slip a punter has placed. In V2, the Optimizer flags the weakest selections on a code and suggests swaps before the bet goes in, while the Shuffle tool deals the matches from several codes into balanced slips so that one bad pick cannot take all of them down.

The third is the code that only works on one bookmaker, which leaves punters rebuilding a friend’s slip by hand, one match at a time. SharpPunter’s converter rebuilds the same matches on the punter’s own bookmaker, and it now supports conversions across 37 bookmakers.

On top of these, many fans let loyalty make the call and back their own club out of habit. SharpPunter’s model has no favourite team, so its picks show how a game rates on the numbers whichever team a fan supports, and in V2 users can also follow a club to get updates on its matches as they happen, with club pages showing its recent results, its next fixture and the league table.

V2 also adds a Live tab that lets users monitor games in real time, with the score, goalscorers, possession, shots, expected goals and corners updating during the match, and a rebuilt SharpSlips that puts together a slip based on how many picks a user wants and how adventurous they want it to be.

Hot on X and the new Community tab

The newest part of V2 is a Community tab, built around the booking codes people already share. Its Hot on X feed gathers codes posted by popular accounts on X into one place, so a user does not have to scroll through timelines to find them. Codes can be filtered by bookmaker and sorted by what is hot, newest, most viewed, or starting soon, and each one shows the number of picks, the total odds, the kick-off time, and how many SharpPunter users have checked it. From the feed, a user can copy a code to their own bookmaker or run it through the Optimizer to see how SharpPunter rates each selection before deciding whether to play it.

The tab also has a Trending feed, which shows the matches most looked at on SharpPunter over the last 24 hours and which way the crowd is leaning on each one, and a Following feed, where users can keep up with the codes checked and converted by the people they follow. Weekly tasks in the tab, such as checking a code or booking a slip, earn credits for the booking code tools.

Demand from outside Nigeria came within weeks

SharpPunter’s first users were in Nigeria and Ghana, and the early product followed the way they already played, with accumulators, booking codes and slips passed around on X, Telegram and WhatsApp. SharpSlips, the platform’s slip builder, put together accumulators from the day’s strongest picks, while the Shuffle tool and an X bot, @SharpPunterAI, which reviewed any booking code a user tagged it in, gave users ways to work with the slips they already had.

SharpPunter was designed with West Africa in mind, but within weeks of launch, sign-ups were coming in from Kenya, South Africa and other parts of East and Southern Africa, as well as from Africans living abroad.

The platform now sells its plans in local currency in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, and in CFA francs for users in francophone West and Central Africa, including Cameroon, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, with prices also listed in US dollars.

“We built SharpPunter in Nigeria, but the slip that dies on one bad game looks the same in Accra, Nairobi and Johannesburg,” Abobade said. “If we can show a punter which game is carrying the risk before they play, we have done our job, and sometimes that means telling them the slip is not worth playing at all.”

One converter for 37 bookmakers

SharpPunter’s booking code converter takes a code, reads the selections directly from the bookmaker it came from, and rebuilds the same matches as a new code on the user’s own bookmaker, naming any selection the new bookmaker does not offer so that nothing goes missing without the user knowing.

The supported bookmakers include SportyBet, Bet9ja, Football.com, MSport, Betika, 1xBet, 22Bet, BetWinner, Melbet, PariPesa and Helabet, and a user can paste any code to see every match on it for free before deciding whether to convert it.

What comes next

SharpPunter’s rebuilt app is free to start on iOS, Android and sharppunter.com, and first-time users get full access to its premium features for a limited period, so they can try everything before choosing a plan. After that, users can subscribe to unlock every prediction, or buy credits if they only want the booking code tools.

None of it changes what happens on the pitch, but a punter who checks SharpPunter before placing a slip can now see the reasoning behind each game, which selections are weakest, and how every match rates on the numbers, including the ones involving the team they support.

About SharpPunter

SharpPunter is an AI-assisted sports analysis platform covering football (soccer), basketball and tennis, with volleyball and American football planned next. Launched in Nigeria in April 2026, it publishes daily predictions with the reasoning behind each pick, settles every pick publicly against the final result, and offers tools to check, optimise, convert, merge and shuffle booking codes across 37 bookmakers.

Sports fans across West, East and Southern Africa can sign up at sharppunter.com or on iOS and Android and pay for a plan in their own local currency.

SharpPunter provides sports analysis and predictions for information only. It is not a bookmaker and does not accept or settle bets. No prediction is guaranteed, and past results do not promise future outcomes. Betting is for people aged 18 and over. Only stake what you can afford to lose, and seek support from a responsible gambling organisation if betting stops being fun.

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