Reprieve for bettors in new SportPesa announcement

SportPesa has now announced that bettors can continue placing their bets on its website, three days after the High Court lifted the betting board's ban on the use of the brand name “SportPesa” in the country.

The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) had banned Milestone from using the name SportPesa or domains, www.ke.sportpesa.com, www.sportpesa.co.ke or pay bill numbers allocated by either Safaricom or Airtel to Pevans.

Milestone Games had been licensed to run a betting platform known as Milestone Bet but after a deal with SportPesa Global Holdings Ltd, were authorised to use the SportPesa brand name.

But BCLB opposed the move, accusing the company of engaging in underhand deals to return SportPesa back to business.

BCLB said that SportPesa brand belonged to Pevans East Africa Ltd, and that there was a court matter relating to the Pevans’ licence, which was coming up by November 16.

Milestone had argued that Pevans does not own the SportPesa trademark. Instead, it claims, SportPesa is owned by SportPesa Global Holdings Limited, which authorised it to operate using its name.

On Thursday 19th, High Court judge Pauline Nyamweya overturned the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) decision to ban the betting company on using the SportPesa brand.

The firm has since obtained clearance from relevant government authorities to allow it embark on operations in the market.

The firm made the announcement on Tuesday evening through its official social media pages.

"Our services are back on. You can withdraw money, deposit and play on your favorite games. To deposit money log onto bit.ly/kesportpesa or the app,” read the statement.

“Click “DEPOSIT FUNDS” button at the top of the page. Enter the amount you would wish to deposit then wait for the Mpesa USSD to pop up on your phone. Enter your Mpesa PIN to authorize the transaction. #SportPesaisBack #SportPesaNiYetuxxx”