Sportesa CEO Ronald Karauri. He has defended the company's decision to withdraw sponsorship for all sporting activities in the country. [Photo/Wakenya]
Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri, has defended the decision by his company to withdraw from sponsoring all sporting activities in the country.
Speaking on Tuesday after a meeting with club representatives on the way forward on the sponsorship deal, the CEO said they had no option but to cancel the deals.
“We announced sometime back because we could see the impact of 35 percent tax on our profits, so we sent notices to all our partners. If you pay 35 percent of your revenue, it becomes very heavy on expenses,” he said.
He added: “Remember we are very big on advertising as well, on newspapers and other areas. We did not want to start considering job losses, so it was the only option we had,”
He further said broke down how the tax would impact the company, saying the percentage would affect heavily the overall operations.
According to Karauri, the company spent close to Sh1 billion last year to sponsor local sporting activities and paid more than Sh1 billion to the government as tax.
"We are definitely appealing the decision because we feel it is not fair, I would love to meet the President to have a discussion on the issue," he added.
He assured Kenyans that Sportpesa is here to stay, contrary to claims that it might be closing shop and move to Tanzania.