New betting firm keen on sports promotion

Dar es Salaam. Local sports enthusiasts must be rubbing their hands with glee as SportPesa, a famous betting firm, has promised to join hands with relevant authorities in turning around the country’s sports fortunes.

SportPesa Global chief marketing officer Joyce Kibe said yesterday that they were committed to unearthing the country’s new generation of sports stars.

Speaking at the launch of the firm, Kibe said they envisage a bright future of sports in the country and that they believe that with proper support, Tanzanians will soon have a reason to celebrate their players on the global football stage. However, she was quick to note that besides their ambition to promote sports in the country, they need support from the government, since they cannot achieve this goal single-handedly.

“Our established business tradition is to open the door to our customers to experience a transparent, innovative and customer driven gaming platform that guarantees instant payouts,” she said. “I would like to assure Tanzanians that we have come to participate fully in community projects through policies driven to play a part in social development whose benefits are not restricted to sports persons.”

She said they were committed to expanding their services to all regions so that Tanzanians can experience a user-friendly service that impacts the society through their initiatives. “SportPesa is committed creating jobs in line with our commitment of building a global brand using talents,” she said. In Kenya, the firm has been sponsoring various sports, including football, amateur boxing and rugby. According to her, the firm has established partnership with famous English Premier League sides, including Arsenal, Southampton and Hull City as well as La Liga teams in Spain.

SportPesa was launched in Kenya in 2014 and has offices in Nairobi, Liverpool in the United Kingdom and now Dar-es-Salaam. For his part, the minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Harrison Mwakyembe, praised the firm for investing in sports and called on other firms to follow suit.

“Investing in sports is one of the best ways to unearth Tanzania’s new generation of sports stars,” Mwakyembe said.

Meanwhile, SportPesa has donated Sh50 million to the national U-17 soccer team, Serengeti Boys, who are now in Gabon for the African Championships finals, which kick off this weekend.