Gor Mahia facing a court case with BetKing.

BetKing a bettining company has filed a court case against Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Gor Mahia after a shirt sponsorship deal between the two went wrong.

Betking is an online bookmaker company that offers betting on major sporting events and virtual products originating fron Nigeria. The company was founded in 2018 by Byron Petzer and Adehunle Adeniji. They were previously knowen as Naijawin247. BetKing who last week penned a Sh1.2billion deal with Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to sponsor Kenya’s top tier league, accuses the local giants of snubbing them even after they gave out an Sh15 million down-payment as part of the Sh30million shirt sponsorship deal. BetKing claims Gor went ahead and struck another deal with revial company Betsafe instead. Betsafe was founded in Norway in 2006 and has grown its area of service from Europe to Africa. Betking allegedly held out Sh30million but the club threw out the offer and opted for a contract with Betsafe who offered Sh50million. “It is a serious issue and Betking is going to take legal action against Gor Mahia for taking their money and refusing to sign their deal,” said our source. Impeccable sources revealed that Gor Mahia representatives who oversaw the deal banked Betking’s money in a new account at the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) where only three officials are said to be signatories. Even with that money in the account, the officials decided to pay players half their salaries for one month and kept the rest of the cash to themselves. BetSafe has allegedly already given Gor Mahia a down-payment of Sh5million and it remains unclear whether the players have received part of the money.

Our efforts to get a response from Gor Mahia proved futile. An official we contacted dismissed the story as untrue.

“Kindly stop peddling rumors…I would appreciate it if you stop saying untrue stories about the club. Should you want to more about sponsorship at the club, kindly explore appropriate channels.”

BetKing has also signed a Multi-Million Naira sponsorship agreement with Africa's biggest beach soccer tournament, the COPA Lagos.