Sportpesa, the on-line gaming firm has returned to sponsor football in the country following their contract termination early this year.
Today, Sportpesa announced a Kshs 682 million in sponsoring football, starting with Gor Mahia-Kshs 198 million, AFC Leopards (kshs 159m), Kenya Premier League (KPL-259 million) and Kshs 69 million for Football Kenya Federation (FKF), with a lucrative deal for three years.
The betting firm dropped the sponsorship with Kenya Rugby Union (KRU), boxing and rallying. Early this year, the gaming firm withdrew all sponsorship agreements with local sports entities valued at half a billion shillings annually after a tax rate on gambling revenue of 35 per cent was introduced by the government last year.
Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri said they are able to partner with four powerful industry players and maintaining and developing local football talent, which is a key vision for the company.
“We have not renewed some of the contracts we had but we decided to choose some of the few we had because the taxation has changed so we need to support the ones we think we can sustain as long as the tax remains as it is,” said Karauri.
With Gor Mahia who will have a bumper calendar participating in the CAF Confederations Cup, the sponsorships comes in good time before the national champions start their continental quest.
“Despite the economic policy setbacks we have suffered over the past few months, we remain committed to supporting local sports as much as we can to get Kenya where it should be, among the great football nations of the world.”
at the same time, the government says it has been involved in the signing of the new contracts with Sports Principal Secretary Peter Kaberia saying they will ensure that each party gets its fair share of value from the contract without disruption..