Thursday, July 17, 2025
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SportPesa banned yet again for using deception to obtain license

SportPesa License: Kenya’s leading sports betting firm SportPesa has once again been banned from operating in Kenya by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).

This is after the BCLB accused Milestone Games Limited, which is using the SportPesa brand name of conniving to get registration. Apparently, the BCLB rued that Milestone fronted disguised shareholders during the registration process, or for the real majority shareholders who include SportPesa chief executive officer Ronald Karauri, to emerge as the owners.

Exposed: How Karauri secretly sold SportPesa at Sh. 15 million to UK firm

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According to a report that appeared in a local daily on Friday, the BCLB chairman Cyrus Maina ruled that when Milestone applied for its bookmaker’s license, its shareholders were Nob Five Limited with 9950 shares and Wilson Ngatia Karungaru with 50 shares.

“At the time, Nob Five was owned by John Munene Nderitu with 250 shares, Jackline Nyambura Kungu with 500 shares and Joseph Muendo Mutua with 250 shares.  As a requirement for licensing, Milestone paid Sh. 200,000 on September 17, 2020 for due diligence investigations on its directors at the time, an act that was done and the board was satisfied that they were indeed fit and proper to hold a bookmakers license,” the report said.

However, once Milestone got its operating license, additional shareholders were included in its register of shareholders. These included a company by the name Selenium Limited.

Selenium Limited is owned by  Karauri and Francis Waweru Kiarie who are both shareholders of the SportPesa firm Pevans East AFrica Limited. This is the latest blow in the attempted comeback of SportPesa. Mr. Karauri and Pevans shareholders who include Paul Ndung’u and Asenath Wacera are rocked in a bitter court battle. Yesterday, case proceedings revealed that Karauri had in September sold off the SportPesa brand name to the UK firm SportPesa Global Holdings.

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Mr. Ndung’u and Ms. Asenath have accused Karauri of conniving with SportPesa’s Bulgarian shareholders to establish a new gaming firm under the SportPesa brand name behind their back. They also accuse Karauri of overseeing the transfer of billions of money to offshore accounts.

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