Meet the Owners Of Kenya's Number one Betting site SportPesa

KENYA: SportPesa, Kenya’s biggest and most successful sport betting company and in this article we are going to list down its owners.

CEO Ronald Karauri.

Recently we saw Sportpesa sponsorship deal with English Premier League side Hull City, and a partnership deal with Southampton FC.

This was on top of another partnership deal with Arsenal.

By signing the deals with English clubs, SportPesa is preparing the groundwork for their entry into the UK betting market.

According to CEO Ronald Karauri, they will also be starting operations in several African countries later this year, hoping to be in 4 continents in the next few years.

SportPesa grosses a daily average of one million users placing bets averaging Sh100.

This is besides the 300,000 gamblers who play the jackpot daily.

By that calculation, SportPesa has a daily revenue of about Sh130 million.

Considering that the initial investment in 2014, into the then startup was just Sh400 million they are deep into profits.

Since their business is largely online, they do not need a large number of permanent staff, leaving the bulk of the money to be used in marketing.

That explains why they sponsor virtually all major sporting tournaments in Kenya, and have now ventured into the UK.

The owners of Sportpesa are; 5 Kenyans, 3 Bulgarians and 1 American.

The top shareholders are American Gene Grand, Bulgarian Guerassim Nikolov and Kenyan Asenath Wacera. Each of them hold 21%.

Bulgarian Guerassim Nikolov.

Businessman Paul Wanderi Ndung’u owns 17%, while current SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri – son of former Tigania MP Mathew Adams Karauri and ex-Kenya Airways pilot owns 6%.

Paul Wanderi is a big investor in the NSE. He is among the top 10 investors in several listed companies among them Kenya Airways, Housing Finance and Olympia. He is also the top Uchumi individual shareholder.

Mr. Wanderi (Left).

Mr. Wanderi also owns a series of Forex bureaus, phone dealerships (Mobicom), construction equipment and investment firms.

In 2014, PriceWaterHouseCoopers estimated the total revenue from gambling to be Sh1.98 billion. Fast forward two years later, SportPesa alone has annual revenues exceeding Sh30 billion.

Soon the total annual gambling revenue in Kenya is expected to reach Sh50 billion.

Below is the full list of sportpesa owners and their stake at the company;