In a deal said to be valued at R1.8 billion, MultiChoice, the South African broadcasting company founded in 1994 and headquartered in Randburg, South Africa, has acquired a 20% stake in BetKing. The latter is a relatively new sports betting company that launched in 2018 and operates out of Lagos, Nigeria. Calvo Mawela, Chief Executive Officer at MultiChoice, made the announcement at a news briefing discussing his business’ new deals at the beginning of November 2020.
Thomson Reuters reports that the deal will kick-off with a US$81 million upfront payment with an additional US$31 million payment possible at a later stage based on performance.
Bookmaking is Big Business in Nigeria
Nairametrics is a leading financial resource organisation also based in Nigeria and they published a report in 2018 that revealed that roughly 60 million Nigerians between 18- and 40-years old were somehow involved in sports wagering. The account went on to detail that almost ₦2 billion is spent on sport betting daily in Nigeria, translating to more than ₦700 billion a year.
Multiple bookmakers have arisen in the country, including AccessBET, Bet9ja, BetKing, Merrybet, NaijaBet, NAIRABET, SportingBet, Surebet24, and many more.
MultiChoice Gets Into the Game
In July this year, Nairametrics broadcast the news that BetKing had entered into a sponsorship deal with the Football Kenya Federation, the biggest one in the history of the game in this country. Valued at US$11 million, or KSh1.2 billion, the agreement will continue until 2025. The FKF has stated that each club in the Kenyan league is set to receive KSh8 million each year until the contract ends.
Mawela revealed that betting supplements MultiChoice’s business revenue because sport is such an income source for the company. And he added that BetKing has enjoyed phenomenal growth in Nigeria and will soon be expanding into South Africa.
