Sportpesa has sacked a total of 400 employees.
The giant betting firm announced the bad news to its employees yesterday morning after breakfast. Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri, while communicating to the staff, indicated that it’s quite unfortunate that the company has resolved to send everyone home following the closure of its operations in the country. However, Captain Karauri assured them that if something good comes up, all the employees will be recalled to continue with their duties.
The letters of termination were handed to each employee with the management thanking everyone for their selfless contributions to the company. Most of those sacked were seen shedding tears as they pondered on their next move.
Sportpesa was among the best employers in the country. As of 2019 the company’s average monthly salary was Ksh 125,000, each employee was satisfied. On average one worker had 10 people who depended on him, translating to 4,000 the number of dependents for the sacked employees.
Following the demise of Sportpesa, more than 20,000 Kenyans were directly affected. We know of a couple of Kenyans who resigned from their jobs to concentrate on gambling, others were selling betting tips. There were companies who relied on advertisement revenue from Sportpesa, a number of media houses heavily depended on Sportpesa.Though the government has indicated that the betting firm had zero impact on the economy, the reality is, Sportpesa’s exit a big blog to Kenyans.
It’s not Sportpesa alone that sacked employees, nearly all betting firms whose licenses were closed followed suit. More than 3,000 workers faced the sack. It’s quite unfortunate that government policy could heavily impact on a sector that had blossomed.