SportPesa Loses Another Appeal in Court Over its Return.

Pevans East Africa, a company mostly known by the name Sportspesa, has lost its case in the court of appeal where they argued that the betting control and licensing board (BCLB) should renew its license. The license was canceled on July 1, 2019, citing non-payment of taxes and other reasons.

The government of Kenya, through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), was pursuing a tax charge of Ksh 14 billion from SportPesa. SportPesa and other betting companies had their licenses revoked until they settled their tax claims.

This is, however, not the first appeal that the betting group has lost. Back in September 2019, a Nairobi high court overturned the group’s appeal to commence business on the basis that the BCLB had obtained evidence in a wrong way. Nairobi Justice, John Mativo, who presided over the case said that the betting group had failed to bring forth evidence that showed that the BCLB had acted unconstitutionally in revoking its license.

“The circumstances of this case are that the petitioner’s license has expired, even if the court quashes the decision of stopping its operations, there is no basis the petitioner can operate on an expired license”, said, Mativo.

SportPesa CEO Ronald Karuri, had tried to revive the SportPesa brand by acquiring shares of up to 54.4% stake in the Milestone Games Limited Company. However, the high court quickly shut down any attempts to do that and claimed that the SportPesa name belonged to Pevans East Africa.

The news comes as a blow to all betting fans who have been anxiously waiting on the return of SportPesa which was arguable, the biggest and most popular betting company in the country.

By Joy Ngoiri