Bet9ja Foundation’s Quiet Drive to Make a Difference

“I think for me, it’s about the need. What people need,” Executive Director of Bet9ja Foundation, Ada Cuomo simply explained, capturing the ethos of the corporate social responsibility arm of the renowned sports betting operator as the GAMINGWEEK team of Nseobong Okon-Ekong, Iyke Bede, and Edith Iyoha sat down with Cuomo to understand what drives the foundation.

Empathy, strategy, or public relations? The answer is simple—they go where they are needed. Nothing else matters.

“We actually speak to the people in the state to actually understand what they need. We don’t just go on an empathy ramble. We’re very focused. We’re very targeted. But yes, empathy is important,” said Cuomo.

She added, “Before we became a foundation, every single year, we gave more than ₦600 million through various activities—but it wasn’t visible. That’s why we decided to create the foundation: to amplify that impact and do even more. That’s how Bet9ja Foundation was born in July 2023. The owners themselves contribute their personal money and time—it’s something they’ve always valued, even when they started Bet9ja. Giving back has always been central to the way they do business.”

The foundation’s core missions are highlighted through five different pillars: healthcare, education, youth empowerment, sports development, and community infrastructure. Since its inception, the foundation has recorded cumulative investments of ₦1.2 billion across over 220 projects in 34 states through its signature programmes, including market solar lighting, borehole projects, ICT training programmes, the annual FCT Boxing competition, and undergraduate scholarships, among others.

“I am very proud of all the projects, just to emphasise, but I will specify a couple that are really, really dear to my heart. We have the Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP), but then we’ve now changed it to the Graduate Employability and Entrepreneurial Summit (GEES).

“We hosted one a couple of months ago, where we brought in over 400 youths across different parts of Nigeria. We taught them about the digital economy, leveraging fantastic speakers. We taught them CV writing, business cases, et cetera. Basically, we’re preparing them for the market, for the job market, and how to break into it.

“We also have the ScaleUp, a nine-week accelerator programme for young entrepreneurs. We have a lot of young entrepreneurs who don’t know how to scale up their business. We brought them in and did a rigorous session, drilling them around sales, around marketing, around how to do your books,” Cuomo stated.

Disbursing ₦10 million to the winner of ScaleUp, Cuomo clarified that the journey doesn’t end where their mentees’ dreams begin. The foundation holds them hand in hand, guiding them and ensuring they stay on track. This approach led them to extend more scholarships to students who received them the previous year. With a good performance track, eligible third-year students enjoyed renewal of their scholarships for a full academic session in their final year, raising the scholarship quota from a hundred to two hundred.

With over 98 per cent of its funding received directly from Bet9ja, the foundation last year gained corporate support from other well-meaning organisations. With finite resources and infinite gaps to plug, the needs-based approach helps tackle pressing issues, an approach Cuomo noted was not for optics but for fixing failed systems.

“We do want awareness because we want people to know what we’re doing so that we can do more, and people can apply for grants. But it’s very needs-focused and very particular, state-by-state. What do people need? Recently, I was saying to my team, ‘Why are we always doing solar?’ We had this discussion. Because it’s a free speech session, everybody gives an idea. They said that in this state, they actually need it. They gave me examples of a town with a lot of robberies late at night when people are leaving work, and women are closing their tailoring shops, and there is literally no light in the streets.

“It made me realise that it might seem like we are doing a lot of solar projects, but it’s because there is a need. And we cannot say that because we’ve done 50 solar projects, we can’t do anything else,” Cuomo disclosed.

When GAMINGWEEK inquired into the challenges they faced, expecting the usual issue of manpower and mobilisation, Cuomo revealed a problem that seemed simple on the surface but was far more complex.

“The biggest challenge is just how to prioritise funds. Because, as we all know in Nigeria, there are multiple things we could be using the funds for. There are multiple issues, right? So how do you prioritise which pillar to give the funds?” said Cuomo. “That has been my biggest challenge because if I had all the money in the world, I would want to fix all the issues? But what we do is that we just ensure we look at all the different projects that we want to do. And we allocate it based on where we feel the need is at the moment.”

In addressing this challenge, the foundation follows a detailed process that includes reviewing project applications, selecting initiatives based on need, and responding to urgent situations as they arise. For example, during recent floods in Maiduguri, the foundation stepped in with emergency relief at an IDP camp in Borno State, providing food, clothing, bedding, and hygiene supplies to 200 affected individuals. Beyond formal projects, the foundation also relies on its network of Bet9ja super agents, who run retail shops across the country, to gain insights into local needs. These agents guide the foundation on what communities require, ensuring interventions are timely, targeted, and impactful.

“So it changes. We do reviews, quarterly reviews with the whole team,” Cuomo shed light on the dynamism that defines her 27-plus-person team. “We have brainstorming sessions. We see what’s happening in the media and then we decide, ‘Okay, this is what we want to do for this quarter.’ And then we move on to next quarter and then reallocate the funds like that. But as it’s fast changing, one thing we know that is constant is support for the youths.”

By 2026, the foundation aims to evolve by incorporating a sixth pillar focused on addressing climate change and its local impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods.

“We are not currently doing things around climate change. So this is one thing that we said we would focus on and look towards in the next year. But I think at the moment our strategy is good because it’s always best to narrow down into specific pillars, work with that, deepen the resource and the work that we do as opposed to trying to do everything. When you do everything, you end up doing very little in different parts. It’s important that we focus on certain areas, we do the best we can in those areas, and then we move on to do other things,” Cuomo said.

In the end, Cuomo’s conviction is clear: foundations are duty-bound to raise the floor for those who simply need a fair chance. For her, it is neither charity for applause nor intervention for prestige; it is a responsibility rooted in the belief that communities thrive when the most vulnerable are not left behind. As Bet9ja Foundation expands its pillars and sharpens its strategy, the guiding principle remains unchanged — go where the need is greatest, act with purpose, and ensure that no effort is wasted in the quiet, necessary work of community repair.