Sportpesa prohibited from operating in Kenya again

In a shocking turn of events, Sportpesa owned by Games Limited has been suspended again from operating in Kenya. The Company has been halted despite seeking approval from the betting control agency as Milestone Bet.

The BCLB announced Saturday that due to a court order, Sportpesa will have to wait until a court decision is made after the betting company in 2019 filed an appeal against the Kenyan Government for withdrawing its operating license over tax returns.

In a letter addressed to Milestone Games Limited on Friday, the BCLB barred betting company Sportpesa from operating under that tradename pending the court case.

This comes a day after Sportpesa announced on its Twitter pages that it was making a comeback in the Kenyan market after more than one year of being in the docks due to a rocky relationship with the Government over taxes.

The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) statd in the letter that it licensed the betting company Milestone Games Limited, which, by its volition chose by itself, to rebrand to Sportpesa without official consent from the betting control agency.

“We note that Milestone Games Limited has been authorised to use the trademark Sportpesa by Sportpesa Global Holdings Limited, whereas during the 2020/2021 Financial Year renewal application, the Board authorised the use of trading name Milestone Bet to yourselves,” BCLB chairperson, Cyrus Maina, told the operations manager of Milestone Games Limited, Bernard Chauro, in a letter dated Friday, October 30.
The betting licensing agency said that the tradename Sportpesa belongs to Pevans East Africa Limited, and therefore that name is non-transferrable since Pevans East Africa Limited had filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal in Nairobi seeking to have Sportpesa’s license renewed, with the company arguing it had met all its tax obligations.

“The matter is scheduled to be heard on November 16, 2020,” said Maina in the letter to Chauro.

Sportpesa operations in Kenya suspended
More than 400 SportPesa employees, who were rendered jobless on October 2. They were on Friday, November 1, issued with redundancy notices.

“In the light of the aforegoing, the Board is of the opinion that Milestone Games Limited will create confusion to the general public to which tradename the company wishes to adopt. The reason being there is a variance in the tradename the Board approved vis-à-vis the name Milestone Games Limited currently wishes to adopt.

The BCLB also in the letter addressed the Safaricom PLC’s legal officer, Daniel Ndaba, and the Acting Director-General of the Communication Authority of Kenya, Mercy Wanjau asking them to blacklist sportpesa paybills.

On Friday, Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri announced that the company was back in operation after one year of being locked out over wrangles with the Government.

“SportPesa is back! I’m happy to announce that the SportPesa brand is back under a new BCLB license holder. https://ke.SportPesa.com,” said Karauri on Twitter.

It now emerges that the company has not been allowed to use the domain name www.sportpesa.com.