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Government orders Safaricom to shut down betting payments in revenue blow

Acting Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph

The government has ordered telecoms firm Safaricom to stop processing payments for sports betting companies, potentially shutting down a lucrative source of revenue for the company.

Online sports betting companies such as SportPesa have grown rapidly in the East African nation in recent years, riding a wave of enthusiasm for sports to achieve combined revenue of 204 billion shillings ($2 billion) last year.

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