Dreams of big payday drive betting addicts

When Pevans East Africa announced on February 2014 that it had invested Sh400 million in launching SportPesa, only a handful of heads turned.

Sports betting was a relatively new concept in Kenya at the time but Pevans’ CEO Guerassim Nikolov expressed optimism when he was interviewed by the Daily Nation’s Smart Company magazine about the launch.

“Kenyans have a fetish for sports, especially football, and SportPesa will bring the fans together where there is a likelihood of winning from bets,” he said, noting that the Kenyan market was ripe for such an investment. He was right.

A year later, SportPesa was on everyone’s lips. From students to boda boda operators to blue-collar employees to vegetable sellers to guards, words like “odds”, “multi-bet”, “jackpot” among others became part of everyday lingo.

From Kiambiu to Kiambu, Kisii to Kitui, a day is not complete without the Kenyans drawn into the betting craze worrying about which games are being played in which part of the world and what monetary return a person will get if they bet on one team over another.

The games of the day alongside the odds by which someone’s money will be multiplied if they bet for a win, a draw or a loss — among other outcomes — are usually printed in the dailies.

Shrewd businessmen in various towns have found a new opportunity to sell photocopies of pages containing the odds to those who do not want to buy an entire newspaper.

From those pages, gamers obtain codes that they use to bet via SMS then wait to see if any returns will be sent to them via mobile money transfer once the game is over.

Cyber café operators have also received a piece of the windfall as those who cannot get the papers log on to the sports betting sites to see which odds apply.

“Someone comes and prints the matches’ tables for two or three days. Most of those are usually eyeing the jackpot,” said Walter Momanyi, who runs the Smartbiz Technologies Cyber at the heart of Kisii town.

Those who have been caught in the betting craze have registered a mix of highs and lows.

Mr John Baraza, a bodaboda rider in Nakuru, says betting has changed his fortunes because the capital for his current business was from money won from sports betting.

“I never knew that with as little as Sh500 one could win such an amount of money,” he told the Sunday Nation.

He added that he has never bet again, out of fear of losing his money.

PREDICTION SKILLS
Not too far from Mr Baraza’s home, Mr John Karanja, who once won Sh90,000, is now owing a relative Sh200,000 which he borrowed with the hope of winning even more than the Sh90,000.

“I regret why I started betting because when I won Sh90,000, there was more urge to continue betting and that is how I incurred a debt of Sh200,000 which I am now unable to pay,” he said.

On SportPesa, one can bet with as low as Sh100 and as high as Sh20,000. From a single bet, a person can win a maximum of Sh200,000 and if they predict the outcome of many games at once, they can win a maximum of Sh1 million.  

Julie, a student at the Kisii National Polytechnic, won Sh7,000 last November and she recalls that had luck not been on her side that day, she may not have paid her rent.

“I used the money to pay my rent; at that time I had nothing and was fearing that the landlord would throw me out. We discussed matches with some friends and I won the bet,” she said.

Julie is one of the beneficiaries of the “pundits” on social media who help predict matches for pay. Some of them have gone as far as advertising themselves in the classified sections of newspapers, claiming to know how to make sure-fire predictions.

Julie said most ladies do not know how to predict matches and they therefore rely on male friends or the “experts”.

“We have people on social media who call themselves ‘sure bet predictors’. To help you, they demand money depending on the number of teams you want to bet for,” she said.

Ms Purity Adoyo, a fourth year student at Maseno University, does not, however, need any pundit to help her win.

She says that betting with Kenyan Premier League teams is tricky and that it is hard to win.

She has, however, made an observation from the English Premier League matches of the 2015/16 season.

“Leicester City was a cash cow. Hardly could one go wrong with [Claudio] Ranieri’s boys. I tried several times with KPL teams but, apart from Gor Mahia and Tusker, other outcomes usually went the other way,” she said.

One of those addicted to betting but have not reaped anything in return is a 35-year-old man in Kisumu’s Migosi estate, who requested not to be named.

“I have not made any money from SportPesa since I started betting three months ago. I have lost approximately Sh15,000,” he said.

“Despite my shortcomings, I am not stopping any time soon, the game is very addictive. It’s difficult to opt out since one finds the urge to continue betting growing every day with a slight preview,” he said.

GLAD WINNERS
Another adamant loser is Duke, a student at a Kisii-based day school. He said that he discusses the matches with youthful teachers in his school who give him their phones for him to place a bet.

“I have never won any bet but some people always do,” he said. Youth in Mombasa have not been left behind by the craze.

In Likoni, a group of youth has opened a WhatsApp group dubbed “Sport Pesa adviser” where they share ideas and advise each other on how to bet.

“We are about 20 members in that group. Betting is something one should do keenly so that you don’t lose your cash easily, so in that group we have members who are experienced and know the backgrounds of the teams that we can bet for,” said Mr Shakombo Omar, 29, a member of the group which was created in March.

Mr Omar said members are also cautioned about squandering funds dedicated to important expenses such as school fees.

“It has been beneficial to us, we have members who are students and we advise them and help them with money if they do not have enough so that they do not end up spending school fees,” he said.

At the same time, Mr Omar, an ardent gambler, said the game has helped him acquire luxurious items.

“I have bought myself an Android phone and good quality shoes from betting money; it’s not something that I can leave easily,” he said.

Another gambler, Mr Romario Luvuvi, said he has managed to visit his native home after winning Sh100,000 from betting.

“I am now in Kakamega; I am using the money to do my projects including poultry. It was a miracle because I have seen my colleagues suffer because of this game,” said Mr Luvuvi who used to stay in Bamburi, Mombasa.

A number of those who do sports betting in Kisumu are perhaps motivated by the story of Joseph Agumba, a Nyando-based farmer who won a Sh20 million Betway jackpot in June.

Mr Agumba, 62, who started gambling as early as 1987 in Nairobi casinos, walked away with the cash after correctly predicting the outcome of 13 football matches.

In an interview with the Sunday Nation last year, SportPesa’s chief marketing officer Kester Shimonyo said it should be looked at like a chama (savings group) whereby a person who receives a lump sum of money has their life transformed.

“Sh1,000 may not make you richer or poorer, but the life of the jackpot winner will change a lot,” he said.

He noted that the market research that SportPesa had done before launching was the reason behind its runaway success, terming Kenyans’ reception “overwhelming”.

“The biggest virtue is transparency. Like in single betting, everybody knows the outcome. That’w what makes it beautiful” he said.

Reports: Elvis Ondieki, Nyaboga Kiage, Mohamed Ahmed, Gaitano Pessa and Francis Mureithi