The son of former Tigania MP Mathew Adams Karauri worked at Kenya Airways for more than a decade where he rose to the rank of captain. He left the troubled airline mid last year to try his hand in the world of betting.
Mr Ndung’u, who has a 17 per cent stake in SportPesa, is a major player at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, where he holds significant stakes in multiple firms.
The list of companies where he has shareholding includes KenGen (0.28 per cent), Kenya Re (2.3 million shares worth Sh45 million) and distressed retailer Uchumi where he holds 18.8 million shares currently valued at Sh57 million.
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Besides the Nairobi bourse, the businessman recently expanded his interests in private equity, with the buyout of agriculture and hospitality equipment company G-North & Son from the Philip Ndegwa family.
Ms Wacera Maina, associated with the ‘Shinda Smart Sh90 million in 90 days’ betting craze of June 2010, owns 21 per cent of SportPesa through her firm Flint (EA). Gene Grand, an American businessman, has a 21 per cent interest in the multi-billion shilling betting company.
Ms Maina’s company, Flint, was both the lottery licence holder and premium rate service provider for the short code 6969.
A subsequent lottery dubbed ‘Shinda Smart 6969’ ended up in court after Flint (EA) Ltd fell out with its partner, Interactive Gaming & Lotteries, on how to share the Sh139.1 million collected in two months before the government banned the raffle.
Documents filed in court showed that more than 2.1 million text messages charged Sh69 per SMS were sent to ‘Shinda Smart 6969’ — highlighting the lucrative nature of Kenya’s lotto industry.
Interactive Gaming & Lotteries was entitled to Sh38.33 per SMS, Flint (EA) earned Sh2 per message as short code processor, while the remainder was shared between Safaricom and government taxes, the court ruled.
Businessmen Javed Iqbal Abdul Rahman, Adil Ali Bashir and Ahmed Talib Abubakar are the owners of Interactive Gaming & Lotteries.
SportPesa also acts as an agent for another lotto dubbed Pambazuka, which was unveiled last month.
The defunct Pambazuka national lottery was owned by Bradley Ltd, which was also entangled in the ‘Shinda Smart 6969’ court case. Who owns Sportpesa….
See the full list of the share holders on the next page:
