The three-year deal will saw SportPesa’s name and logo on Hull City’s shirts.
SportPesa’s sponsorship deal with Hull added 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).
Arsenal Football Club had also signed a partnership deal with SportPesa seeking to grow its fan base in Kenya by offering locals exclusive bets and offerings such as merchandise and tickets.
Another notable player on Kenya’s betting industry is former Citizen TV presenter Julie Gichuru, who is a director at Acumen Communications, the owner and operator of mCHEZA, a sports betting platform.
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.
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.
SportPesa grosses a daily average of one million users placing bets averaging Sh100, besides the 300,000 gamblers who play the jackpot daily, said a source who cannot be named because she is not authorised to speak for the company.
Mr Karauri owns a six per cent stake in Pevans East Africa, the holding company, while Mr Nikolov has a 21 per cent shareholding.
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