Sports betting firm SportPesa will be renewing their sponsorship deal with Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards after all.
The news comes after the bookmaker invited the media and officials from the Kenyan Premier League to announce its renewed support on Monday.
Gor and AFC Continued To Wear SportPesa Branded Jersey until the Sponsorship Renewal
SportPesa quit sponsoring both Gor and AFC in January following the government’s hike of betting revenue tax to 35%. Following a legislation pushed by Majority Leader Aden Duale in Parliament, the government bowed to pressure from betting firms and reduced the tax rate from 35% to 15%.
“The bill seeks to amend the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act to reduce the amount of betting and lottery tax payable by operators,” Duale argued.
While it is true that SportPesa stopped sponsoring Gor and AFC and several other Kenyan league clubs in January, both Gor and AFC continued to wear SportPesa’s logo on their team jerseys. The management of both teams said they continued to don SportPesa’s branded jerseys because they were positive the sports betting company would renew their sponsorships.
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“They told us to hold on till the beginning of May and they will give us the way forward so we are waiting. They have not formally written to us and said that they are pulling out and that is why we are still wearing branded jerseys,” Gor Mahia CEO Lordvick Aduda said.
It is not only Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards that will be benefitting from SportPesa’s renewed sponsorship deal.
SportPesa offered the Kenyan Premier League Ksh80 million per season, even though both Gor and AFC got a combined Ksh93 million per season during the last contract.
