Dependence on SportPesa ‘bad’ for Kenyan sports

Taken at face value, SportPesa’s recent bail out to four local football entities could easily pass for the best thing to happen to Kenyan football since the beginning of the year.

The colossal figure of Sh682 million, which the gaming firm forked out in a renewed deal, couldn’t have come at a better time for the ever impoverished Kenyan football industry.

And as you would expect, the return of SportPesa, who left their beneficiaries high and dry earlier in the year at the height of a taxation tiff with the government, was greeted with palpable excitement by the said entities.

For Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards – the two local ‘giants’ forever dogged by financial woes – Christmas had come early as Santa Claus (read SportPesa) made a surprise visit with his bulging satchel of goodies.

Thankfully, those familiar tales of boycotts in the training grounds and near-missed flights, for lack of air tickets, will be the least of their troubles, for the time being.

As such, it will only be understandable in the coming days to hear men and women who run these destitute clubs and their kin and kith at Kenyan Premier League and Football Kenya Federation

shouting themselves hoarse with praise songs for SportPesa.

And who wouldn’t, after having a lifeline thrown your way just when you thought you were drowning?

It explained the newfound camaraderie – broad smiles and clasped hands held high – during the announcement of the renewed deal. 

Heck! Kenyan football could just as well proclaim SportPesa the Messiah Incarnate!

Yet, all the jubilation calls for some retrospection of what is evidently becoming, for lack of a better word, a worrying SportPesa ‘dependency’ in Kenyan sports.

While we cannot begrudge SportPesa for their ‘philanthropic’ ways, the apathy from their contemporaries in the corporate world who are well capable of similar gestures is astounding.

What happens the day, God forbid, SportPesa loses interest in Kenyan sports?

In an ideal situation, such an occurrence would be a godsend opportunity for other corporate entities to stake their claim over the vacant prime space.

But no, not in Kenya. We’ve already been given a sneak preview of the most likely scenario; clubs and sports entities which came into existence long before betting found its way into the English vocabulary whining and wallowing in self-pity over how the government is hell-bent on cutting off their lifeblood. It’s truly depressing.

That is the more reason why Kenyan football administrators cannot afford to continue enjoying such junkets at sportPesa’s expense without pondering on why everybody else appears ambivalent to the idea of putting their hard-earned money into sports.

So why is it that most corporate entities would rather not touch Kenyan sports, especially football, with a ten-foot pole?

Well, the answer is simple. It has everything to do with the morass which is synonymous with sports administration in this country.

So here we are, ‘stuck’ with SportPesa.

Sadly, having one monolithic entity sponsoring nearly all sporting activities inevitably breeds ‘institutionalized’ loyalty on the part of the beneficiaries. It’s a scenario that is prevalent in many other sectors outside sports. Just look around and you’ll notice the bigger than life stature which institutions with a monopoly in key sectors acquire with time.

Which is why I say this SportPesa ‘dependency’ is ‘bad’ for Kenyan sports.