Sports betting sweeps over the country

IT is just after lunch on a hot Tuesday afternoon, and one of the many sports betting parlors in Kampala is crowded. 

In a corner near the entrance is 20-year old Geoffrey Mwesigye, a university student. After carefully studying the day’s games, he bets on five.

 

‘Could this be my lucky day?’ he wonders aloud.  

About 60,000 Ugandans of various ages, backgrounds and religions ask themselves the same question every day across the country.

 

“I once won sh300,000 from a bet of sh1,500. Usually, I come here early enough just to research on the internet to improve my chances of winning. But luck determines how much you take home,” Mwesigye says. 

 

Every day, the betting companies put a line up of games for the public to bet on. At times, up to 80 or more games are lined up.,

 

For every game, there is a team of analysts abroad and at times, in the country, who analyse the strength and prospects of each team. The stronger the team is, the higher the likelihood of a win but the lower the odd and return.

 

“Our average bet size is less than sh2,000 and half our bets are sh500. People can win substantial amounts of money and hardly a month goes by without somebody with a bet of sh500 winning a few millions,” says Andrew Batley, the Sports Betting Africa boss, one of the sports betting companies in Uganda. In one of the parlours Business Vision visited, the Germany vs Belarus under-19, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) game had odds of 1.09 for a German win, 7.58 for a draw and 16.12 for a Belarus win. 

 

With sh500, Mwesigye could walk away with sh545 for a German win, sh3,790 for a draw and sh8,060 from this game alone. 

 

“The biggest some body has won is sh30m before 2007 when I arrived here. The biggest win I have seen was when somebody from Kisekka market placed a sh500 bet and won sh4.5m last month”, Batley says.

 

“When I presented him the dummy cheque he was literally shaking. Those are the guys we are interested in. We expect more such winners when our ticket sales go up to two million this month.” 

 

Ronald Mutyaba, an agriculturist, says sports betting is an addiction much like gambling. 

“How can you expect to make sh3m from a sh1,000 bet? It’s simply impossible, yet people keep hoping that they will win at some point,” he says.“In the end it is the sports betting companies that make the biggest profit, ripping off their unsuspecting customers.” 

 

It is undeniable that the risk of loss in sports betting is high and yet Ugandans continue to stream into it.  

Managers at SBA reveal that over 100,000 individuals flock its head office halls on weekends with an average 60,000 individuals during the week days.

 

On certain days, the betting companies make substantial losses and some like Great Bet were forced to close shop, leaving an estimated sh200m bets unpaid. 

 

To counter this, some betting firms have opened up reserve funds. 

Bartley, says the fact that the odds and bets are based on research transforms the activity from ordinary gambling into some sort of intellectual entertainment. 

 

“We ideally want to pay out 80% of the collections but, there are days when we lose. We have built substantial reserves worth several hundred dollars to ensure that we keep paying our customers and also to stay afloat business wise,” he says.  

 

“Majority of the clients are the blue collar Ugandans; primarily market porters, taxi drivers and boda boda riders. People with big bets, are not really who we are after.”

 

Information from the National Youth Council indicates that 26% of Uganda’s 33 million population is between 18 and 35 years with 54% of the population below 18 years, an age range which is so in love with the English Premiership and foreign leagues which feature highly on the betting rounds. 

 

Bartley says his firm was able to remit over sh2.4b in gaming tax to the Uganda Revenue Authority this year.  

He adds that upcountry stations have begun to overtake his 12 city outlets, indicating that the market prospects are still high.