SportPesa moves to court to challenge Government on suspension

English Premier League side Everton toured Kenya at the invitation of SportPesa from July 3- 9, 2019. [Courtesy]

Betting firm SportPesa has sued the Government for betting losses after the state switched-off their pay bills and shortcodes.

Pevans East African Limited, which owns SportPesa, says they are seeking compensation for money lost since the shutdown began.

The suspension of the Pay Bill, SMS and Short Codes have affected the ability of bettors to withdraw their funds deposited in the gaming wallets

In the suit, Sportpesa says that it had not broken any regulatory requirements and conducted its business according to the law.

Despite securing temporary court orders suspending Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB)’s decision to withdraw their license, Sportpesa described the move by BCLB to suspend its M-Pesa pay bills and SMS short codes as unlawful and in contravention of a court order.

The betting company also accuses the state of refusal to renew its licence and wants the court to stop a directive by the government to Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom to suspend its M-Pesa pay bills and SMS shortcodes.

“The action of the respondents are not unreasonable, irrational and high- handed but also clearly amount to deliberately abuse of office and state power to achieve ulterior ends,” the suit seen by The Standard read.

So far the government has renewed the license for seven betting firms. These are BetLion, Odibets, Betpalace, Mcheza, Kwikbet, Betika and Gamemania.

This comes after the betting firm maintained that the company is a law-abiding corporate citizen that upholds all tax and regulatory requirements.

Already, SportPesa and Betin Kenya are the recipients of Sh14 billion tax demand from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

 The tax row is also believed have had a hand in the cancellation of Betin and SportPesa’s business licenses.

SportPesa says that KRA did not carry out a proper assessment before they issued the demand.

A report from a multi-agency team set by the government indicated that the companies made about Sh204 billion last year yet paid Sh4 billion in taxes.

About 27 companies have had their licenses cancelled following negative findings of the board that they were not tax-compliant with some failing to renew their licenses by July 1 deadline.

Some also were also unable to demonstrate that they have been operating within the law or performed well financially for the past four years.