The Citizen conducted an interview with Mr. Tarimba Abbas, SportPesa’s Director of Administration, in Dar es Salaam, asking him to tell more about SportPesa’s journey in Tanzania, since they entered the country in 2015, and went live in May 2017.
For those who don’t know: SportPesa comes from Kenya, with impressive expansion plans (currently rolling out across Africa and Europe).
Mr. Abbas explains many aspects of SportPesa’s business activities and social responsibility, the teams SportPesa is associated with (sponsoring Young Africans, the Simba Sports Club, or Singida United for instance)
In Kenya, SportPesa sponsors not only football (Kenyan Premier League) but also rugby, in the UK, they have partnerships with teams such as Everton, Hull City, Arsenal and Southampton. Their Corporate Social Responsibility is clearly football development – as Mr. Abbas states: “we would like to grow with the game”. (They regularly bring over English trainers to train the Tanzanian coaches, for example.)
To the question “What challenges are associated with betting in Tanzania?”, Mr. Abbas mentions a few analogies connected to Tanzanian Gaming Tax (and how to make taxation on gaming more friendly to the operators and the gaming public), such as the UK practice (where winnings are tax-free), or the United States (where your losses can be offset from your winnings)
SportPesa’s plans for the future are just at the beginning – there is so much more to do to improve sports betting in Tanzania – to which we wish SportPesa all the best!
Great interview, worth watching! (and it takes only 3 minutes)
Have you ever bet with SportPesa Tanzania? or do you still prefer MeridianBet.co.tz?