Betting and the love of a beautiful game

Strolling around one of the streets in the city one Sunday morning , I came across two women who are selling 'mandazi' one telling the other in the local language “Achieo ayudo ka AC Milan owango na rishit”(I’ve woken up and found out that AC Milan has been beaten).’Rishit’ is a common term used by the betting fraternity to refer to the list of teams one has placed a bet on.

 
This is astonishing to realize that football gambling has a wider scope and it is not only limited to the football fans but also anybody can participate in it.Often when you walk around this streets you will find a faction of youths especially on weekends each with a pen and paper trying to make their selections on the teams that they think will emerge victorious at the end of each matches of the day. 

With the introduction of betting business the way football fans perceive football is now gradually changing from the previous ways where we had diehard fans of clubs. The argument of which teams are the best in various leagues has shifted to which team always let people down in betting and how their money has gone to the account of ‘mzungu’.Other fans of this beautiful game have opted to follow the result of matches on live scores rather than watching the game live on television sets. 

The lucky ones have taken it as a business and gambling online is what they always do apart from their daily chores. Then there is also a certain group of those who have hopes of one day whooping millions of cash on jackpot betting where one is required to correctly predict the outcome of the selected thirteen matches.

 
The trend has been the same on social media platforms especially twitter where the hash tag #TeamBettingKE always do around on the weekends with Kenyan tweets exchanging ideas on which teams to choose. Interestingly, there is no guru in betting because in football any team can win and so can any team lose.

 
During one of the launch of one of the new betting franchise into the Kenyan market, media personality Julie Gichuru said “It is fun and interesting to bet but one should not be addicted to it'.

Sportpesa has been one of the top online betting websites in the football gambling business and this has attracted other various companies which have ventured in the market each trying to convince and lure customers with the best odds, live betting and variety of sports.

 
Some of the companies which have been authorized and regulated by the Betting Control and Licensing Board include betway, Mcheza, Elitebet etc.