Kenya: Sports betting provider Betika threatens tax claims

The bookmaker Betika was shot by the Kenyan authorities. There are considerable punishments and tax payments. Around 1.75 billion Kenya-Schillig, approx. 15 million $ , should be due for taxes and punishments. Betics defends itself and is contradicting, but in the recent past, other sports betting providers had to leave the gaming market in Kenya due to similar cases.

Sports betting providers Betika defends itself

Betika, a well -known Kenyan bookmaker, defends itself against the massive accusations of the Kra Kra. Tax claims and punishments in billions are not justified according to the group, which is why the parent company of Betika, Shop & Deliver, now objects to the tax court in Nairobi. Betika is not the first Bookmaker who confronted with allegations sees. this was preceded by a written request from the kra to the financial institutions kcb bank kenya limited and guaranty trust bank to transfer the amounts due from the accounts of the bookmaker to the tax authority. of the Referred contradiction The company hopes for one thing above all: time for the lawful, judicial clarification of the allegations and thus also a delay in the amount due.

Tax liability only refers to half a year

The amount required by the Kra is made up of different parts. 832.4 million Kenya-Schilling tax debts from the last Tertial 2018 are due. In addition, there are 587.63 million Kenya shilling for January and February 2019. Due to a lack of willingness to cooperate, punitive fees and interest in the amount of 328.1 million Kenya shillings are added due to a lack of willingness to cooperate. This results in one Total of around 15 million $ .

How does the incident come about? The Kenyan government has announced the fight for gambling providers in their own country. In the area of sports betting, especially in the past few months, 27 licensed bookmakers have been withdrawn from the license. New licenses were only awarded through expensive legal disputes and against high payments from the bookmakers to the government. According to the Kenyan authorities, this procedure was absolutely necessary because the sports betting providers would not have adhered to the license conditions. The main violations fell on the areas of tax payments and player protection.

Betika is cooperative

It actually looked as if the conflict between the Kenyan authorities and betics had already been created out of the world. After the bookmaker had shown extremely cooperatively, the sports betting provider already got his temporarily withdrawn license. Betika also unconditionally accepted an edition of the government, which states that 20 percent of gross income will go to the state as tax in the future. Betika also had a comprehensive campaign on player protection called “Betika Na Community” (translated: “Employment with the community”).

Betika marketing director John Mbatia referred to a soccer tournament organized by Betika in the Kenyatta Stadium in the Kenyan province of Machakos that the campaign supports the Kenyan mass sports as well as various local sports projects using sponsorship and donations in kind:

“As a betics, we believe that we can influence the positive change among young people by creating an atmosphere of the development of talents and sporting skills […].”

Not the first case of its kind

Despite the honest efforts of the bookmaker Betika, the situation seems to have been stuck. In the past few months, some sizes in the industry had already withdrawn from the East African country – despite similar efforts. They included the market leaders Sportpesa and Betin. The withdrawals were above all that New tax rate on sports betting income of 20 percent owed. In addition, according to the official information, Sportpesa’s payment arrears compared to the Kenyan tax authorities was the equivalent of around 200 million $ .

The bookmaker Betin also withdrew from the Kenyan gambling market. The company’s withdrawal also meant unemployment for around 2,500 Kenyans. If Betika took the same way, this number would grow significantly. This step stands and falls primarily with that Output of the court proceedings. If Betika’s tax debt is confirmed by the court, this step should be inevitable. It also remains to be seen how the Kenyan government’s path has been on the country’s entire gaming market.