Honoré Gaming Targets East Africa Expansion as AI Reshapes its Odds Engine

_{CEO of Honoré Gaming, Christophe Casanova. (Image: Honoré Gaming)}

Honoré Gaming is pushing into East Africa and deploying artificial intelligence across its proprietary odds and risk management systems, as the B2B platform looks to cement its position in some of the world's fastest-growing betting markets over the next three to five years.

The Dakar-based company, which operates across French-speaking West Africa and supplies a unified sportsbook, pari-mutuel horse racing, lottery, and online casino platform from a single back-office, says East Africa represents its most significant near-term growth opportunity, but one that requires a fundamentally different approach to its established Western markets.

The moves reflect a broader shift in how specialist B2B suppliers are navigating Africa's fragmented regulatory landscape, where mobile money infrastructure, tax policy, and player behaviour vary sharply from country to country. With Africa remaining one of the fastest-growing online betting regions globally, the pressure to localise, technically and commercially, has never been greater.

East Africa Demands a Different Playbook

Honoré Gaming's West African base is built on scale, promotional volume, and fast payments. East Africa, the company says, is a different animal entirely.

In an interview with casinos.com Honoré’s CEO Christophe Casanova said: 

“West Africa is scale-driven and promotion-heavy, while East Africa tends to be more regulated, mobile-first, and increasingly focused on sustainable, product-led engagement."

“In East Africa, this means prioritising mobile-first experiences, lightweight product design, and deep integration with mobile money ecosystems such as M-Pesa.”

Casanova says seamless payments remain the single most critical factor in user acquisition and retention across both regions, but the tools required to deliver that differ significantly. Its expansion strategy centres on localisation and platform flexibility, with particular emphasis on adapting to evolving regulatory frameworks and diverse payment infrastructures.

Looking ahead, the company identifies three core challenges: navigating shifting regulation, maintaining efficient payment flows, and balancing short-term acquisition against long-term player value

AI Moves to the Centre of Odds and Risk Management

Alongside its geographic push, Casanova says artificial intelligence has become central to how it prices markets and manages risk, a development he argues is delivering tangible margin improvements for operators on its platform.

Casanova told Casinos.com: “AI is instrumental in how we compile odds and manage risk. It allows us to digest and interpret vast amounts of data more efficiently, including signals from sharp bettors, which helps us continuously shift and sharpen our lines. Better pricing leads to stronger operational margins and meaningful cost efficiencies for operators over time.”

The company has been building its proprietary odds algorithms for over a decade. Casanova argues that the integration of machine learning into that process represents a step change rather than an incremental update, particularly in markets where margins are under sustained pressure from regulatory levies and competitive acquisition spend.

PMU Partnership Continues to Drive Platform Validation

One of the clearest endorsements of Honoré Gaming's technology has come through its partnership with PMU France, which led to the development of the dedicated Hub platform for PMU Bet. The company says the commercial results have exceeded its initial expectations.

“Nearly all PMU customers in Africa have made the decision to use our sportsbook to launch sports betting verticals,' it said. 'That traction has validated both our technology and our approach to market entry”, Casanova told us.

The partnership has also shaped Honoré Gaming's wider product roadmap, informing how it approaches white-label builds and dedicated operator partnerships across French-speaking Africa.

Regulation and the Black Market Problem

On the regulatory front, Honoré Gaming is direct about the risks of excessive taxation. The company operates exclusively with licensed operators across regulated markets and says it has invested heavily in compliance tooling, but it warns that aggressive tax frameworks can undermine the very revenues governments are seeking to protect.

Casanova said: “While it is understandable that regulators are looking to maximise tax revenues, this needs to be balanced as aggressive taxation pushes bettors to the black market to reduce the very revenues regulators are chasing. 'It's a cycle that few regulators escape from.”

The platform now supports multiple tax structures and reporting formats across jurisdictions, allowing operators to remain compliant without rebuilding processes from scratch each time a new regime is introduced.

On responsible gaming, the company describes its role as a shared duty between platform and operator, focused on equipping partners with behavioural tracking tools and sustainable play features rather than treating compliance as a box-ticking exercise.

The Pasteur Principle

Honoré Gaming's website carries a Louis Pasteur quote, 'Luck favours only the prepared mind', a choice that might raise an eyebrow on a betting platform. The company is unsentimental about where it came from.

“I can confirm we don't have any philosophy aficionados within the company, Casanova told Casinos.com.

“It captures what we do. We build the infrastructure that turns chance into strategy for operators. In gambling, luck is the product offered to players, but our clients succeed because they are the best-prepared operators in their markets.”

As for the team's own punting record: the company's most memorable wager was backing Marin Čilić to win the 2014 US Open at odds of 180 on Betfair, a bet that held without a hedge through the final against Kei Nishikori, and paid out.

With East Africa expansion accelerating and AI becoming increasingly embedded in its core technology, Honoré Gaming's next chapter will test whether that same philosophy translates from the trading desk to the continent's most competitive new markets.