Every business field has its own rules and standards. Kenyan sports betting market already exists several years and new players on the market should know, what they need to deliver in order to successfully start struggle for their market share. Kenyan market is not an exception and in this article we’ll see, what are the “basics” of the market and what are customers used to and what a new company entering this specific market has to be prepared for.

Kenya: a country of online sports betting

According to a research published by DataReportal (Digital 2020: Kenya, Simon Kemp, 18.2.2020), 43% of population of Kenya are internet users, which brings you to the market of almost 23 users.

All kenyan companies operating sportsbooks are having the majority of their revenues from internet players. There are several offline settled branched, but due to low coverage this definitely the way you should think starting betting business in Kenya.

Payment methods: no way without mPesa from SafariCom

Kenyan mobile operator and main internet provider in the Kenya – Safaricom,  many years ago launched mobile payment system mPesa and during certain priod mPesa became the most popular payment system in Kenya reaching 15.2 billion transactions (data from Mar 2021). In practice it means that all sports betting companies in Kenya give players a chance to depoist, make bets and withdraw their funds using mPesa. There’s not even a small company operating in Kenya, which doesn’t operate IN and OUT transactions without support of mPesa payment system (more about transaction fees in the article: Is it possible not to pay transaction fees for depositing money to a betting account?).

Kenyans banks are modern enough to give you access for processing payments using card payments gates, but due to low expansion of debit and credit cards among kenyan popularity, this method doesn’t belong to the most used and popular among betting companies. This market just belongs to mPesa.

Other mobile operators in Kenya, “AirTel” and “Telkom” have limited number of clients, but indeed they have their customers which could be potentially your clients as well.

SMS-betting and betting using USSD is your way to cover more customers

Statistics are showing us, that mobile and internet penetrations in Kenya is very big, but the problem is that a big percentage of population have mobile phones and ability to connect to internet, but have no money to pay for it. Some betting companies in Kenya offer their customers an access to their sports betting websites for free (sponsoring data), but the number of those are very limited.

Moreover, we should keep in mind, that rural areas (not even in main city Nairobi) are still the place, where millions of inhabitants live and work. This fact caused that sportbooks offer a possibility to bet just using mobile phone with no internet connection at all. That’s why SMS-betting is so popular in Kenya and every company entering the kenyan market should seriously consider this option.

Betting using USSD system is more expensive and complex in development and running, but still the way to cover more customers. Compared to betting using SMS, USSD-code base betting is more limited because of technical limitations.

Social networks are the best way to stay in touch with your customers

Running a sportbook, social networks can become the way not to keep in touch with your customers, but also to promote new services, bonuses, jackpots etc. Almost every sports betting company has its facebook page and twitter account. Twitter is very popular in Kenya! Instragram, TikTok and YouTube are more expensive to use, because you have to produce interesting content, but can serve as a good addition to your presence in internet.

A great advantage of a social networking for a betting company is a feedback from players, what problems they are facing, what features they are missing. Even a charity action of supporting can be seen different by different people and the more you pay attention to what your customers’re saying, the faster you’ll choose the way you wanna do a sports betting business better. Publicity is a great option how to deliver your customers a message that you are operate transparent (payout on time, listening to people, who actually pay you money and essential for making profit..)

24/7 support is a “must have” option

The greatest disadvantage of online business is a lack of an ability to communitate with customers in person. It forces online driven companies to pay more attention to the way the communicate with their clients. Betting business in online format respect the same rules. Not only this! Major part of betting companies in Kenya uses services of other providers (for example, SMS) and problems with registration may come as well as technical problems with depositing money for clients.

24/7 Support is necessary for cases, when a new custmer doesn’t now how to operate the website he just registered on.

Returning back to community

Social attitude to gambling in Kenya is moderate. Kenyan politicians are always willing to restrict it, but the same way they remember about money a gambling industry brings to government. Kenya is a very specific country related to a betting market and a closer look reveals better understanding, how it works.

Why sports betting companies help communities in Kenya

Main idea of all sponsorships is to show that you help people a different way than just giving discounts and bonuses. In case of promotions you give money back to current players, but common understanding of the problem of gambling makes you take care not only of players, but on their surroundings as well: families, counties etc.

Solution was brought by communities and companies itself. “Okay,” said betting houses,

“If we are taking money from pockets of not the richerst people in the world, let’s give something back and both sided will feel happy!”

And decision was made: every sports betting company tries to arrange and sponsor a help to a community. Range of supporting activities is very wide: local tournament sponsorship, sponsoring team in kenyan premier league, realisation of water project for areas where people need an access to water. Sure, bonuses and jackpots as well as rich giveaways don’t belong to a category of social responsibility.