How Coronavirus has affected betting in Kenya?

In Summary

• Kenya is a major hub for betting money, particularly sports betting on various betting sites, and most of the time losing for what they don’t know.

• The keen gamblers around Kenya with their strong love and passion for the world’s leading football leagues were drastically influenced by Covid.

A sports betting site
BETTING CONTROL: A sports betting site
Image: FILE

The intense desperation of money has made gambling a million-dollar business in Kenya. Due to the lack of employment and right awareness, fresh graduates find themselves in pubs and clubs trying their luck day and night. 

Today, Kenya is a major hub for betting money, particularly sports betting on various betting sites, and most of the time losing for what they don’t know.

However, the recent coronavirus outbreak has severely impacted betting in Kenya. Sports betting had more become a favourite pastime or a routine for Kenyans to get relief from their poverty-stricken life.

In this article, you’ll know the major changes that had occurred in sports betting in Kenya due to the Covid. 

The keen gamblers around Kenya with their strong love and passion for the world’s leading football leagues were drastically influenced by Covid.

It was not only betting the money but the thrill and excitement that one experiences when gambling with other people of the same interest. Unfortunately, the increasing spread of coronavirus led to the closing of bars, pubs, clubs, arenas where the majority of sports betting used to happen. 

In light of this critical situation, online betting was a relatively sound alternative to not disrupt the flow of gambling in this dark country. But, it was discovered that only a small proportion of 30 per cent could do online betting while others were waiting for the situation to get better. 

Besides being an excellent source of entertainment for Kenyans, Sports betting was also generating more than enough for the sports betting website, clubs, and many middlemen. So, ultimately the halt in this commercial activity also became a nightmare for those making their bread and butter out of this. 

The Kenyans didn’t follow any restriction unless this global infection had spread to the gills of many Africans. That is why people were also scared to not continue betting in the house as the virus is highly contagious. As a result, Kenyans confined themselves to houses and waited for the slow-down in the drastic virus spread. 

A complete stop on sports betting in Kenya for a long duration created a lot of mess with the immediate shut down of the national leagues and important sports events globally.

The sports sector in Africa itself experienced unexpected times with struggling to make a global appearance by following all the mandatory health precautions. Few virtual sports like horse racing, online poker, video sports that could be tackled well on safebettingsites.com/ke/ were being bet during this time. 

Being the third-largest gambling market in Africa, Kenyans had a strong allure to get-rich-quick neglecting the fact that the number of winners is pretty much higher than the miserable losers from gambling. However, the government of Kenya believed that it’s just this strong addiction towards gambling that will eventually lead them to explore more illegal avenues of acquiring money, possibly being a threat to the country.  

The tremendous decline in annual turnover from $20 M to less than $10 million had unknowingly disturbed Kenyan’s sports market economy. The temporary shutdown of these physical gambling casinos eventually turned into an official suspension by the government. 

In short, the impact of coronavirus on the betting sector of Kenya has also helped the gamblers to save the money that they used to lose in betting. Also, some of them have given up on this wicked habit as they haven't gone gambling in months. 

Conclusion:

The two sides of the story tell that Kenya will so cover up its declined revenue that came from gambling. The halt in gambling might sound unfavorable times for the time being but is definitely the best time to lead the country on stabler money-making sources.  

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