You see sports are an expensive venture. To organise a soccer league for example takes money, and lots of it. Teams also need money for expenses like paying players, buy kit and equipment, travelling and accomodation etc.
Now teams/clubs are organisations that unlike a running business or company usually have no direct revenues from sales. Their income relies on there being a league/tournament to earn prize money as well as ticket income. Before they can get this income they need a sponsor and the existence of an organised league/tournament. Therefore the only other two ways of funding teams/clubs is through sponsorship by well wishers and businesses or government taxes. Usually, governments will not use your taxes to sponsor teams. They will use them to build sports infrastructure and fund administration of sports affairs through a ministry.
That leaves financing of sports leagues and teams mainly to private sector. Now, one of the most effective and modern ways to finance sports is sports betting. Essentially, take sportpesa for example. Currently they sponsor the premier league in kenya to the tune of over 360m over four years. Previous sponsor tusker sponsored for previous four years to the tune of 170m until that deal expired.
These amounts finance the organisation of the league such that every weekend we have our young talented players play and entertain you and me the fans. More importantly they get paid for it. Clubs also in the process get ticket income from spectators.
Now, sports betting companies make money by organising bets. Your losses are their income and that income is used to fund the sport as well as keep something for themselves . Besides that they also employ staff and pay taxes. Yes there might be a risk of some people developing problem gambling and addiction but just like cigarettes, alcohol, food or masturbation risk of addiction is everywhere and steps mitigation are necessary. In any case i’d rather be addicted to sports betting where i can make money than be addicted to cigarettes, caffeine or sex.
All in all, its good to enjoy a good game and make some money out of it as well. Remember unlike other forms of gambling that rely majorly on luck sports betting requires analysis of a sport and good knowledge of teams/players playing to determine the outcome of a sporting event. Therefore the argument that the house always wins is null and void here.
While simple minded njoki chege and pastors discourage you from betting on sports for whatever reason note that they simply do not help the sport in any way since however much you tithe your local pastor will most likely enrich himself rather than organise a sporting league. As for njoki she would rather you treat her to outings and shopping rather than have money in your betting account.
Sijasoma inakaa kubore
Stick to bycicles hii huwezani
The house always wins. Make 10-15 billion a year after tax and dazzle fans that 300 million is a good contribution to your sport. Even the 25 million jackpot looks heavenly. Yes they are helping the sport but don’t forget they are literary harvesting fans money with their consent handsomely. I wish i had the licence and resources to start a betting company, that’s the real jackpot.
What they make is not the problem. How they make it is the issue. If its legal then no issue here. In any case its also a massive investment on their part. For you to offer 24hr online betting platform intergrated with mpesa and other services and with the data capacity to handle millions of transactions hourly and plus back up, you require serious hardware in servers and skilled manpower. Also game analysts and researchers to find out which games are happening all over the world, calculate odds, update the platform and also due to massive amounts involved the finance manpower etc Doesnt come cheap both in costs and skills. And the licence fees are crazy. Thats why you find those betting companies especially the big successful ones are almost always foreign owned including sportpesa.
Taking notes, nikipata hiyo licence expect my inbox.
Not reading this shit
All in all play for fun and if possible once in a while say weekends when your favorite team is playing. The odds are usually too low and the uncontrolable variables affecting the outcome of a sporting event too wide to make it a sustainable income earner.
Sorry i don’t gamble, i would rather spend that money on family, friends, invest or buy a round of pint.