Nigeria is no doubt one of the most improved basketball nations in the world.
In the last two decades, Nigeria, which hitherto played second fiddle to Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Central African Republic and North African countries in the continent’s pecking order, have dominated the sport such that its national teams, D’Tigers and D’Tigress (women), during this period won more continental trophies than all the other African countries combined.
However, the game of basketball is not being followed religiously unlike football in Nigeria.
In order to change the narrative, one of the biggest sports betting companies in the country, Betwinner, is doing its possible best to make sure that Nigerian sports lovers take to the game of basketball as they cherish football.
And in an effort to achieve this goal, Betwinner took it off at the grassroots level as the company recently sponsored a basketball tournament in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA.
The competition titled the FUTA Eagles League saw the students of the university, both male and female display intelligence in basketball with some of them already dreaming of representing Nigeria.
As the 2023 FUTA Eagles League got underway at the Federal University of Technology Akure, SPORTS PLANET, your premium news and magazine sports show, a production of Complete Sports Studios powered by Betwinner caught up with the institution’s Director of Sports, Emmanuel Amoo who had a lot to say about the competition.
A few of the participating students also expressed their gratitude to Betwinner for sponsoring the FUTA Eagles League.
“The FUTAsolympics is a yearly competition in which we also have the FUTA Eagles League which kicked off on the 5th of July. We have five teams in the male category while the femle has two teams,” Amoo said.
“There is a lot of talented players in the basketball teams and I believe they will all be taking up the sport on a professional level like into the NBA and even playing for the Nigerian national teams.”
On Betwinner for sponsoring the FUTA Eagles League, he said “I would love to say a very big thank you to Betwinner for sponsoring the tournament, they have really done well for us, I would love to appreciate all their staff.”
One of the students, Johnson Olaoluwa also expressed his gratitude to Betwinner by saying “We want to say thank you to Betwinner for sponsoring our games, we really appreciate the company for distributing their merchandise to our fans and for providing jerseys for the teams, thank you, Betwinner.”
As for Okikioluwakan, she said “I want to seize this opportunity to thank Betwinner for sponsoring our basketball games, providing jerseys for us and distributing their merchandise, thank you very much, Betwinner.”
Alabi Damilola on his own part said “We sincerely want to thank Betwinner for providing us with the jerseys and also sharing their merchandise to our fans that came to watch us, we want to say a very big thanks to Betwinner.”
Recall that Betwinner, the home of true winners also sponsored the 2023 Goalfest which took place at the Eko Hotel and Suites on June 10, 2023 where the UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan was shown live.
The likes of Mohbad and Zlatan Ibile also performed while the major highlight of the event saw Betwinner’s ambassador, John Mikel Obi who is a former Super Eagles captain and Chelsea midfielder grace the occasion.
