Kenyans spend an average of sh 2 806 on sports betting every second, according to the Daily Nation. This amounts to sh 168,833 every minute or sh 101 million every hour.
Between July 2022 and June 2023, Kenyans spent a staggering sh 88.5 billion in online betting. One of the popular betting sites in the country at the moment is Shabiki.com.
In this article, WoK looks at Shabiki’s ownership, management, and operations
Ownership
Shabiki.com is said to be the brainchild of Royal Media Services (RMS) mogul SK Macharia. The betting platform was launched officially in March 2022 at the National Archives grounds in Nairobi. However, it has been in operation since 2018.
The gambling platform was launched to increase Royal Media’s revenues, which had declined following tight regulatory measures on advertising by the government.
Shabiki operates under its parent company, Gameco LLC. Upon Launching, the site was heavily marketed by all RMS stations comprised of over a dozen radio stations and three TV stations, enabling it to reach a wide audience of gamblers.
RMS also banned adverts from other betting platforms to reduce competition. By 2019, the platform was transacting billions of shillings in wagers from millions of gamblers across the country.
Like most betting sites, Shabiki enticed customers with tempting offers from weekly jackpots. It started with the Shabiki jackpot Mbao and later the Shabiki Power 13 jackpot, launched in 2019.
This enabled it to compete neck and shoulders with other betting sites like Sportpesa, Betin, 1XBet, Betika, Mozzartbet, Melbet, Betwinner, 22Bet, and Betway.
Royal Media Services was the first media house to enter the gambling industry as an independent player.
However, other media houses had long been enjoying lucrative profits from the industry, whose annual turnovers far exceed those of the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Standard Media, which owns KTN, had been championing the Lotto lottery while Nation Media, which owns NTV, promoted the Pambazuka lottery.
Management
Shabiki’s director of operations is Fred Afune, who doubles as the Technical Services Director at RMS. Under his stewardship, the betting platform launched weekend promotions dubbed Supa Sato and Double Sunday in 2022.
The Supa Sato incentive provided a percentile stake back in case a gambler lost only one game in a multibet while the Double Sunday incentive doubled all deposits gamblers made on Sunday.
The promotions were wildly successful, attracting millions of gamblers on weekends.
Shabiki’s marketing manager is Tom Bwana, who previously worked with Sportpesa and Betsafe. He was also the relationships officer at Equity Bank at one time.
Under his leadership, Shabiki launched the Shabiki Qatar Jackpot (QJP) in 2022, which gave punters an opportunity to win sh 60 000 with a wager of 8 shillings. In the same year, they launched the Shabiki Jackpot Mbao and Major League Jackpots.
Conflict of Interest
Months before Shabiki was launched officially, Citizen TV anchor Joey Muthegi resigned from the station in 2018 citing conflict of interest.
The news anchor, who had been hosting the 10 over 10 and ‘Power breakfast’ shows, was reportedly threatened with disciplinary action from RMS management over allegedly promoting Betin, another betting platform, instead of Shabiki.
Muthegi was reportedly earning between sh 6-8 Million from Betin as a brand ambassador alongside renowned footballer MacDonald Mariga. The two played the roles of husband and wife in Betin adverts.
Controversy
Despite its success, Shabiki has been at the receiving end of social media backlash in the past.
In 2019, blogger Cyprian Nyakundi exposed instances where Shabiki had announced and called winners, only to flip the tables and award the winnings to other people.
The platform was also accused of false advertising and promising non-existent bonuses. Following the complaints, Shabiki announced that there had been an error in their programming and promised to rectify it.
