Mr Ronald Karauri, one of the principal owners of SportPesa. PHOTO | FILE
By NEVILLE OTUKI
In Summary
The Kenyan millionaires behind betting firm SportPesa
say their recent move to sponsor English Premier League club Hull City
is a strategy to penetrate the global market, which has 4.7 billion
sports viewers.
They are seeking to ride on SportPesa’s increased brand
visibility to push the mobile phone-based sports betting platform to
four different continents by next year alongside other African nations.
The principal owners of the betting company include
former chairman of the Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KAPA) Ronald
Karauri, businessman Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Wachera Maina –
the entrepreneur behind the controversial “Shinda Smart” lottery.
“Following various speculations regarding the
sponsorship of Hull City as the club’s official sponsor, we wish
toclarify that the sponsorship deal is in a bid to take the brand
international,” said a statement from Mr Karauri, who doubles as the
company’s chief executive.
“In the next few weeks SportPesa sport betting will be available in Europe and other African countries,” he added.
The betting firm last week signed a £10 million
(Sh1.321 billion) sponsorship deal with Hull City. This made it Kenya’s
first company to sponsor a football team in the UK’s lucrative topflight
premier league.
The three-year deal will see SportPesa’s name and logo on Hull City’s shirts when the next season begins in August.
The company has also sealed a betting deal with
Southampton FC — the club Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama played
for until his transfer to Tottenham Hotspurs last month.
SportPesa’s other shareholders are three Bulgarians
— Guerassim Nikolov of the ill-fated Toto 6/49 lottery, Valentina
Nikolaeva Mineva and Ivan Kalpakchiev — as well as American businessman
Gene Grand.
The company’s sponsorship deal with Hull adds to a
string of funding it has doled out to other sports entities at home
including Kenya Rugby Union (Sh607 million), Kenyan Premier League
(Sh450 million), Gor Mahia (Sh325 million) and AFC Leopards (Sh225
million).
Kenya’s mobile phone-based sports betting industry
has experienced phenomenal growth in the past couple of years, aided by
the ease of placing bets online or through SMS and paying via mobile
money platforms such as M-Pesa and Airtel Money.
“Just like we have international brands offering
sports betting and other services in Kenya, SportPesa is also taking the
Kenyan brand international,” the company says.
There are now more than a dozen sports gambling
platforms in Kenya, including Betway — the official sponsor of another
English Premier League side, West Ham United — EliteBet, Betin,
JustBet, Bet365, BetYetu, eazibet, Lucky2u, 256Bet, Royal Kenya Bets,
and go-bet.
Kenya’s gambling, gaming and lotteries sector is
regulated by the Betting Control and Licensing Board. Both Mr Karauri
and Mr Nikolov refused to comment on this story and declined to disclose
how much money their company, SportPesa, makes from its runaway success
in sports gambling.
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