Nairobi: Sportpesa mulls NSE listing, LIVE bet as revenues hit the roof

By Staff

Betting firm, Sportpesa is considering a Kenyan Securities Exchange listing and LIVE betting as revenues continue to soar.

The chief executive, Captain Ronald Karuari said in an interview that the company was plotting an NSE listing, although no decision has been taken thus far.

“That is a plan we have and its one that we will initiate in the next two years, no active conversations have started yet but we are thinking strongly about it. LIVE betting could start before end of the year,” said Karauri.

The firm further revealed that plans for stocks trading are at advanced stages and no meetings have been set with stockbrokers or investment banks for pitches on potential initial public offering’s likely structure and valuation.

The proposed Nairobi bourse listing could materialize as early as 2018 with the announcement being backed by investments analysts.

“This is audacious and a welcome move, we need more companies to come to the market to share the benefits to the public. Listing is much better, you might have a lot of players,” commented investment analyst with Standard Investments Bank (SIB) Erick Musau.

“The company could chose to list at the GEMs market by introduction which has minimal regulatory scrutiny. This is just a promise, 2018 is still a long way,” said Musau.

The degree to which the offering will appeal to investors is not yet known, since Initial public offerings are also not immune to flops.

The company’s financial results, still not in public display, show impressive growth since SportPesa was established.

The firm said that as of the year start, it had paid to the taxman in excess of Sh1.6billion (in taxes) – widening from Sh800million it remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for the financial year ended December, 2015.

The announcement coincides with calls by MPs who had in August called for a complete review of Gaming Law as well as inquiries into the activities of gambling firms with emphasis on tax compliance and disclosure of information, demanding to know how the firms appropriate billions lost by betting fans.

Similar concerns had been raised for online forex trading, prompting the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in July to invite comments from stakeholders and the public in amending the draft capital markets (Licensing Requirements for Online Forex Brokers and Conduct of Online Forex Business) Regulations, 2016, in order to come up with a regulatory framework that will provide a safe online forex trading environment for Kenyans.

Presently there is no regulatory framework governing online forex trading in the country – a situation that has seen the Forex Trading (FT) branded ‘shifty’ business and continues to expose thousands of innocent traders to losses.

There has been an increase in the number of online betting companies mushrooming into the local market with SportPesa, Betway and Bet-In topping the list of popular betting sites among Kenyans, with the number expected to grow judging by the trend.

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) show that annual gross turnover of sports betting industry in Kenya is above Sh2.1billion and more than 50,000 Kenyan investors are participating in online forex trading through foreign registered brokers

One of the industry’s regulator, Capital Markets Authority (CMA) had in July 2016 invited comments from stakeholders, public in amending the draft capital markets (Licensing Requirements for Online Forex Brokers and Conduct of Online Forex Business) Regulations, 2016.