Gor Mahia players celebrate SportPesa Supercup Trophy win on June 11. PHOTO | FILE
Summary
- English Premier League side Everton announced a Sh1.3 billion shirt sponsorship deal with SportPesa in May.
- SportPesa will replace Chang Beer on the front of the club’s kits in the next season, after Everton agreed the biggest sponsorship in its history.
- SportPesa was launched in Kenya in February 2014 by local company Pevans East Africa and is among betting firms which have witnessed exponential growth.
A Sh1.3 billion a year shirt sponsorship
deal for European top-flight football club Everton has catapulted
Kenya’s betting firm SportPesa to the top list of sponsors in global
sport this year.
English Premier League side Everton announced a five-year shirt sponsorship deal with SportPesa in May.
New
analysis of spending patterns for the 2017/18 premiership season, which
kicks off on August 12, shows the Everton deal ranks number eight in
the top shirt sponsorship this year.
SportPesa will
replace Chang Beer produced by South Asia’s largest beer-maker Thai
Beverage on the front of the club’s kits in the next season, after
Everton agreed the biggest sponsorship in its history.
According
to British Sports data and analysis website Sporting Intelligence,
SportPesa will spend an eye-watering £9.6 million per year (about Sh1.3
billion) for Everton’s 2017-18 season shirt sponsorship deal underlying
the Kenyan betting firm’s financial war chest.
The
analysis shows a majority of the EPL clubs have seen increased deals for
the forthcoming season. Thanks to SportPesa, Everton has registered one
of the biggest leaps together with West Ham via new contracts with
betting firms, according to Sporting Intelligence.
SportPesa
was launched in Kenya in February 2014 by local company Pevans East
Africa and is among betting firms which have witnessed exponential
growth.
ALSO READ: SportPesa ups its game with Tanzania entry
It
now has tens of thousands of unique users and its monthly net revenues
are estimated at over Sh1 billion. SportPesa became the first African
company to sponsor an EPL club when they did a deal with Hull City last
season.
The firm has sought to ride on its increased
brand visibility to push the mobile phone-based sports betting platform
to four different continents by next year alongside other African
nations. It is now the title sponsor of Kenya’s top-flight and African
gaming partner to La Liga.
Locally, however, SportPesa
has given notice to terminate all existing sports sponsorships should a
35 per cent tax on revenue of gaming companies be effected from January
as planned.
The development comes on top of the government’s impositon of tax on net profits accrued by betting and gaming firms.
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.
Sporting
Intelligence notes that 20 Premier League clubs have generated a record
£281.8 million (Sh38.35 billion) for the 2017-18 season, up from £55
million (Sh7.48 billion) last year in shirt sponsorship deals.
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