Logifuture CMO Ben Cove: AFCON’s evolution from optional to essential for brands

Ben Cove, CMO at Logifuture, speaks to SBC News on how Bet9ja’s continued backing of Nigeria’s AFCON campaign underscores the tournament’s strategic importance for iGaming operators, revealing why Africa’s flagship competition has become a pivotal battleground for engagement, brand equity and market leadership.

When the Africa Cup of Nations kicks off on December 21, the Nigeria team will again be supported by Bet9ja – the nation’s biggest sportsbook and casino. This is the second AFCON in a row that Bet9ja has backed the Nigerian FA’s “Let’s Do It Again” campaign. Ben Cove, the CMO at Logifuture – the B2B technology and marketing powerhouse behind Bet9ja – explains how AFCON has evolved into an essential moment in the sporting calendar for iGaming brands.

When you work in Nigeria, you quickly realise that major tournaments are handled very differently to how they’re managed in Europe. In England, for example, the build-up to a World Cup is driven by broadcasters, big commercial partners and the kit supplier. The English FA doesn’t need to create the hype – the machine around the national team does that by default.

Nigeria’s preparation for a tournament like AFCON is far more centralised. The Nigerian Football Federation takes ownership of the entire campaign narrative. They create a capsule theme designed to unite the country, and this year it’s Let’s Do It Again, which is a reference to Nigeria’s previous AFCON triumphs and a call for the whole nation to rally behind the team.

For Bet9ja, that structure plays to our strengths. We are the only truly Nigerian sports betting operator and one of the country’s biggest consumer brands, full stop. The platform we have online, combined with more than 25,000 retail stores on the ground, makes us part of the everyday fabric of Nigerian sport and culture. Being aligned with the national team isn’t just a logo-on-shirt exercise – it’s a core part of how we show up for fans.

We’ve been working with the NFF for several years now, and that consistency matters. It helps the brand feel genuinely rooted in Nigerian football culture, not just parachuted in. The previous AFCON highlighted just how powerful that can be. Nigeria reached the final, the country was completely behind the team, and our brand was right there in the middle of that journey. When the national team succeeds, it becomes one of the country’s biggest storytelling moments and being connected to that is incredibly valuable.

This year, the tournament overlaps directly with Premier League fixtures. In Nigeria, Premier League attention is enormous – often bigger than anything else. So there’s real value, for both the NFF and the brand, in shining an even brighter light on the national team and ensuring AFCON gets the awareness it deserves.

Unprecedented access to the Super Eagles

Because of our partnership, we get access that’s simply not available outside of this context. In the build-up, we’ve been filming short-form social content with the players, collaborating with the Super Eagles’ official channels, and capturing fan reaction across Nigeria and overseas.

Our Home Turf podcast – which has more than 1.4 million subscribers – has been previewing the tournament, and we’ve run CRM campaigns that give fans money-can’t-buy experiences, including tickets and travel to all three group matches.

Once the tournament starts, that access becomes even more important. We’ll be producing behind-the-scenes content from inside training, travel days, hotel downtime and pre-match routines. We’ve sent a correspondent on the ground who is extremely close to several players, which means we can capture material in a natural, authentic way.

In Lagos, we’re hosting viewing parties for every Super Eagles match. These events have become a major part of how fans experience tournaments, and they create the kind of atmosphere that only happens when the national team is involved. Alongside that, we’ll run special betting markets, individual player specials and money-back offers tailored specifically to Nigeria’s matches.

It’s a huge programme. But with this set to be the biggest AFCON in history, it needs to be.

A World Cup dress rehearsal

This year’s tournament marks a shift in how AFCON is perceived globally. For a long time, European football fans mainly considered it in terms of which Premier League or Champions League stars they’d lose to international duty. It wasn’t understood as the serious, high-quality competition it is.

That’s changing and quickly. This will be the most sophisticated and commercially relevant AFCON to date. It’s also effectively a dress rehearsal for the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host. Much of the infrastructure, stadium footprint and operations from this year’s AFCON will feed directly into the World Cup. That alone elevates the tournament.

Digitalisation has accelerated everything. Africa isn’t “off grid” anymore. Mobile saturation, internet connectivity and digital consumption are now on a par with many other regions. International brands can connect with African audiences more easily, more directly and more meaningfully than ever before.

For some global brands, AFCON is becoming an attractive opportunity. For Bet9ja, it is already bigger than the Euros in terms of relevance. The cultural importance is deeper, the emotional energy is higher, and the level of passion simply doesn’t compare.

Engagement and the demand for personality

The last AFCON taught us a lot about what fans want from modern tournament content. They’re no longer satisfied with surface-level football coverage. They want to know who players are away from the pitch – their personalities, interests, cultural tastes, quirks, humour and daily routines.

We learned that lifestyle-driven content often outperforms the traditional match-focused material. Fans respond strongly to seeing players relax, laugh, choose music, talk about food or local culture, or share light-hearted insights. It humanises them, and with such a digitally savvy, youth-heavy audience, that matters.

Our partnership gives us the access to deliver that type of content. Being inside camp, being around players in informal settings, capturing small but meaningful moments – that’s what brings fans closer to the national team. It also helps the brand stay present throughout the tournament, regardless of results.

Of course, performance still drives everything. When Nigeria goes deep in a tournament, the country moves with them. Engagement grows exponentially. The final stages become national events in their own right. That momentum is something no brand can replicate in any other context.

AFCON might once have been seen as an inconvenience in parts of Europe. From where I sit, it has evolved into one of the most important and influential tournaments in global football. For any brand with a meaningful presence in Africa, showing up isn’t optional anymore, it’s essential.