On Monday sports betting firm SportPesa announced a new 3-year sponsorship deal that will see Football Kenya Federation and the Kenyan Premier League together with Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards worth Sh682million.
In the next three years, KPL will receive Sh259,712,000 million, while Gor Mahia will pocket Sh198,607,00 and AFC Leopard gets Sh156,406,403.
According to SportPesa Chief Executive Officer Ronald Karauri, the new sponsorship deal is meant to improve the standards of local football he also said that they chose to renew some of the contracts that they would be able to manage following the change in taxation by the government.
“We have not renewed some of the contracts we had but we decided to choose some of the few we had because the taxation has changed so we need to support the ones we think we can sustain as long as the tax remains as it is,” said Karauri.
“Despite the economic policy setbacks we have suffered over the past few months, we remain committed to supporting local sports as much as we can,” he added.
The Kenya Premier League will now be called SportPesa Premier League and each of the 18 clubs will get Sh270,000 as monthly grants.
Gor chairman Ambrose Rachier who is also the KPL chairman was quick to thank the betting firm for the kind gesture.
“I thank SportPesa profusely for coming back despite the heavy taxation, it has been a difficult time at KPL involving 18 clubs thus we’ve to appreciate despite the reduction in amounts,” said Rachier.
The FKF boss Nick Mwendwa thanked sportpesa for returning back saying it was a relief for the Kenyan football.