After making announcements on Saturday that it has exited Kenya, one of its main markets, Kenya’s giant betting company Sportpesa has now remained with 5 markets in the whole world.
Among the countries that Sportpesa still operates include the United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa, Tanzania and the Isle of Man.
According to SportPesa’s website, despite the exit, Kenya still remains as the “spiritual home of the company”.
“Kenya remains the spiritual home of SportPesa. With a number of sponsorship deals and frequent community development programmes, we think we’ve earned our title of the most popular gaming company in Kenya,” says SportPesa on its website.
The company revealed that it had set offices in Liverpool and the United Kingdom.
“Having established strong partnerships with some of the biggest football clubs in the UK, we are proud to have our new European head office in the stunning Royal Liver building in Liverpool,” says SportPesa.
“As proud sponsors of Torino F.C. SportPesa is excited to add Italy to its portfolio of operations, and we look forward to extending our product offering and first-class service to Italian customers,” continued SportPesa on its website.
The only remaining markets in Africa are Tanzania and South Africa thanks to its sponsorship of three of Tanzania’s most popular football teams, including Yanga FC as well as South Africa’s leading football team, Cape Town City FC.
On Saturday, September 28, SportPesa announced it was stopping operations in Kenya until the “hostile business environment” in the country improves.
In a statement to newsrooms, SportPesa said the 20 percent withholding tax charged on overall winnings has made it impossible for the firm to make money from the business.
The fate of the over 400 betting firm’s staff now hangs in the balance, as the company is yet to announce what it would do with its workers.