SportPesa ends Kenya sponsorships amid “immense pressure” from government

Embattled sports betting firm SportPesa has cancelled its Kenyan sponsorship portfolio amid an “extremely challenging” business environment in its home market.

The operator issued a statement on Friday confirming the cancellation of its sponsorship portfolio, effective immediately, including deals with the Kenyan Premier League and KPL clubs Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards. European sponsorships are unaffected.

Qualifying its decision to end its sponsorships, SportPesa cited “punitive” measures taken against it by the Kenyan government around tax payments.

SportPesa said last week the Kenyan government was trying to charge betting taxes based on turnover rather than revenue, as enshrined within Kenyan law.

SportPesa defended its Kenyan record, saying it is compliant with all regulatory requirements

The operator confirmed all clubs and partners had received notices of termination as provided for in their contracts. The company has said it has been forced to re-evaluate some of its plans but would “endeavour to resume support to the best of our ability when the business recovers”.

“SportPesa is passionate about sports development in the country and this decision was regrettably arrived at haltingly and after a lot of deliberation and thought,” SportPesa said.

In recent comments, Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa claimed Kenya’s sports leagues could lose as much as KSH600m in revenue as a result of the removal of sponsorships.

SportPesa, together with fellow operator Betin are currently suing the government over the claims and SportPesa has taken out several adverts in the Kenyan press outlining its tax record and contributions to Kenyan sports.

“For now, we remain positive that the current situation will be resolved amicably and urgently, and we continue to seek the goodwill of all actors towards normalising the environment for the gaming industry,” the statement added.