By the end of 2018, about 6 million Kenyans were betting on the Sportpesa platform every day, averaging Sh600 million a day. The company enjoyed explosive growth from its relatively humble beginnings of over 1 billion in 2014 -- when the company was set up -- to Sh150 billion turnover in 2018, just before the government pulled the plug on the company over a tax dispute and security concerns about some of its owners.
Sportpesa was Kenya's most successful betting company. Kenya's betting craze was created by this company. The amount of money in betting is simply astounding, the number of people involved is staggering, and the effects of betting on Kenya's population are unquantified.
But just what happened in Sportpesa boardrooms? Is the company really guilty of the crimes it was accused of? And what did the company do to warrant the aggressive clampdown, the kind never seen in the country before?
In this podcast, Country Of Gamblers, we explore the effects of Sportpesa on the country.