Has betting firm Sportpesa been a blessing to Kenyans or has it been a curse?
Well, Betting is one of the fastest growing businesses in Kenya and this has mainly been attributed to the fact that Kenyans are out to make easy money.
High Unemployment rates in Kenya have also provided a soft spot for betting business as idle Kenyans majorly youths try their luck in betting so as to make ends meet.
It is estimated that a Kenyan Youth spends roughly a 100 bob betting on Sportpesa.
Do the maths and Pick a minimum of 1,500,000 gamblers and boom they send 150 Million to Sportpesa per day and 4.5 Billion per month.
Sportpesa in a show of appreciation, picks about 100 of them and sends an average of 10K to each. Total ; 1 million per day ; 30 million in a month.
Same Sportpesa will reappear at the end of the month and reward one ‘winner’ with about 200M. So the total expenditure in a month is 230 Million (in the context above). Directors of the said company will take home about 3.710 Billion per month. About 45.93 Billion in a bad year.
Sportpesa gives 80 Million to Gor Mahia football club, 135 Million to Harambee Stars and about 62 Million to some Rugby team. Per year.
They will also pay approximately 3 Billion to the taxman.
Meaning by December of every year, Directors of Sportpesa will have milked approximately 40 Billion (net) from pockets of poor gamblers.
Don’t forget, out of 1,500,000 gamblers,1, 499,000 did not win a coin that year. They are left poorer. With only an option of stealing their neighbors’ rabbits to sell and do more betting with a hope of winning next time.