A visit to one of the many recently established sports betting companies in Kampala will confirm that sports gambling is arguably the fastest growing business in town.

Everyday thousands of mostly young men frequent the many sprouting betting firms from morning till late to stake their money in the hope that they can reap big when luck comes their way.

If one is to go by their usually good instincts for making money, Ugandan business people have spotted where the potential for high return lies today.

Simon Mpanga, the Chief Executive Officer of Gamming International (GI), the newest betting company in the country told The Sunrise that his company has invested some Ushs 6billion.

This money has gone into things like purchasing equipment, renting spacious places in several parts of the city as well as helping to pay the salaries of some 750 front and back office workers.

Since the advent of Sports Betting Africa about three years ago, several other bureaus have opened in Kampala; these include Royal Sports Betting, Kings Bet, Royal betting and the new Gamming International.

Owners of the betting companies strongly defend the fact that many young people spend useful time and resources in betting lounges and cafes searching for sports information.
But the testimony of Richard Matovu, a trader at Mukwano Arcade whose business partner lost all his saving in the betting game, perhaps depicts a different story.

Matovu argues that he was involved in a business partnership with a colleague who lost all his savings through betting.

Matovu says: "One time my former business partner could not heed to my advise that he could lose money through betting. He took Ush500, 000 which was half of his stake in our business. His was a bad day as he got the bets wrong and lost all the money," Matovu narrates how Ugandans can be desperate to earn out of betting.

How to play

Betting on sports in Uganda is a fairly simple process. Upon arriving, a player picks up what is referred to as a "fixture list", which is basically a list of soccer matches. All you have to do is mark who you think will win the match, marking "1" for home team, "2" for visiting team or "X" for a tie. A player must bet on at least two of the matches, with the wager starting from Ush500 (around $0.17) for each bet placed.

The player who predicts all the games right wins. But because a great majority of the betters lose, it means that the companies and only a few people win.

The popularity of the top European Leagues among Ugandans, most especially the English Premier League, largely explains the speedy rise in the sports gambling business. However in their quest to cash in on more other sports, the betting companies are inviting people to bet on other sports like boxing and Motorsport.

To improve presence and accessibility the services to their clients, betting companies are rapidly expanding their network through opening up service kiosks in a number of suburbs.

Sports betting Africa is somewhat the pioneer thus has spread from Kampala to Masaka even to northern Uganda. but this share is being eaten up by the mushrooming new companies because companies like Royal and Kings and also Gaming tend to offer higher odds thus becoming more attractive to the masses.

Gaming in particular has perfected the gaming business by renting bigger and more spacious venues, which is not the case with say Sports Betting Africa, where their agents even work on stools in the streets, partnership with major casinos in Kampala has upped the game and the revenue.

A mini survey done by The Sunrise indicates that sports betting in Uganda is following the same old rules as all games of chances where "the house always wins." This may be bad news especially for many young people who have put all their hopes in betting to escape poverty. blog comments powered by Disqus

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