Kenyan tycoons Ronald Karauri and Robert Macharia lose SportPesa control to anonymous UAE firm

An anonymous company registered in the United Arab Emirates has taken control of the firm that runs SportPesa in Kenya. The two Kenyan businessmen who spent six years fighting for the brand now hold less than 4% between them.

Techglow Ltd. owns 54% of Milestone Games Ltd., according to filings at the Business Registration Service. Milestone is the licensed operator of SportPesa, one of Africa's largest betting platforms. Business Daily reported the shareholding changes Sunday.

Ronald Karauri and Robert Macharia once controlled about 84% of Milestone between them. Karauri is now recorded at 3%. Macharia is at 0.75%.

Techglow is registered in Ras Al Khaimah, an emirate roughly 100 kilometers north of Dubai. It has no website and no social media presence. Emirati law keeps company shareholder and director records private, so its owners cannot be identified from any public filing.

Who owns what

Milestone has two shareholders on paper. Nob Five Ltd. holds 75%. Commtech Consortium Ltd. holds 25%.

Techglow's stake sits inside Nob Five, which has seven shareholders of its own. Karauri, Macharia and James Ngengi Muigai, a relative of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, are among them. White Hart Ltd., owned by businessman Tom Waireri Thuo, reaches 11.6% of Milestone through the same route, making it the third-largest ultimate owner.

Benard Chauro Matoke is listed as Milestone's only director. He holds no shares.

Commtech was incorporated on March 23, 2023. Dadson Wahagi Mugo owns 80% of it. Elvis Charo Kitsao owns the remaining 20%.

Layered ownership has drawn scrutiny at Milestone before. The Betting Control and Licensing Board accused the company in 2020 of using tiers of holding companies to sidestep the due diligence it runs on licence applicants. Karauri held an effective 54.4% of Milestone at that point, through Selenium Ltd. and Nob Five.

A parallel exit from a health contract

Commtech has also left the ownership of a company at the centre of one of Kenya's largest public contracts.

Safaricom, UAE-registered Apeiro Ltd. and Konvergenz Network Solutions are building and leasing the digital platform behind the Social Health Authority to the Health ministry. The contract is worth about $809 million, or Sh104.8 billion, over 10 years.

Commtech held 22.5% of Konvergenz when the consortium formed. That stake now sits with Starway Trading Ltd., another UAE-registered company. The filings do not show whether it was sold or moved into an offshore vehicle owned by the same people.

Calls to numbers listed for Commtech went unanswered. Konvergenz did not respond to questions.

A record year for betting

The ownership changes came during the strongest year Kenya's betting industry has recorded. Punters staked about $2.55 billion, or Sh330.5 billion, in the 12 months to June.

That is more than double the $1.12 billion, or Sh145 billion, that retail, foreign and high-net-worth investors put into shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange over the same stretch. The bourse returned 34%.

Tax policy drove much of the surge. Kenya cut excise duty on betting to 5% from 15% in the year that began in July 2024. The Kenya Revenue Authority still collected about $127 million, or Sh16.5 billion, in excise from the sector, beating its target by 15.9%. The authority credits better administration rather than more gambling.

A GeoPoll survey published last month found 64% of Kenyan respondents had bet on at least one football match in the previous year. Ghana followed at 60%. South Africa was third at 58%.

How Milestone got the brand

SportPesa stopped operating in Kenya in November 2019. The government had sharply raised taxes on betting stakes, the revenue authority had issued a demand running into billions of shillings, and the licence was suspended.

Pevans East Africa owned the trademark at the time. It transferred the brand to UK-registered SportPesa Global Holding Ltd. for 100,000 pounds. SportPesa Global then assigned Milestone the right to use it in Kenya.

Paul Wanderi Ndung'u and Asenath Wachera Maina, who held 17% and 21% of Pevans, went to court over the transfer. The litigation has run in Kenyan and London courts since.

Milestone is separately fighting a revenue authority assessment of about $7.8 million, or Sh1.01 billion, in excise duty. The Tax Appeals Tribunal blocked the agency this month from seizing funds held at five banks and two telecoms operators while the appeal proceeds.