Kenyan businessman Paul Ndung’u has launched a fresh legal challenge over the ownership of the SportPesa brand, escalating a long and bitter fallout among the original investors behind the country’s most successful betting platform.
In a new case filed at the High Court in Nairobi, he accuses his former partners of orchestrating a fraudulent transfer of the trademark from Pevans East Africa, the founding company, to offshore affiliates while concealing ownership changes, evading taxes and relying on forged documents.
Ndung’u, who once chaired Pevans East Africa, wants the court to block Milestone Games, a company tied to ex-partner Ronald Karauri, from using the SportPesa name until the dispute is resolved. He argues that two trademark rights were wrongfully approved for transfer by the Registrar of Trademarks to Sport Pesa Global Holdings Limited in the United Kingdom for £100,000 each, insisting the sale lacked authorisation and should be reversed.
The case marks the latest chapter in a rift that widened after regulators suspended Pevans’ licence in 2019 over alleged tax violations. Ndung’u and fellow shareholder Bernard Maina were later pushed out in 2023 after disputes with the company’s leadership. Before the clampdown, Pevans was a cash-rich enterprise, paying billions of Kenyan shillings in dividends to its owners. Ndung’u personally received more than KSh1.3 billion over four years as the company dominated Kenya’s gaming sector.
Despite its shutdown, SportPesa re-emerged under Milestone Games, controlled by Karauri and associates linked to the original investors. That move reignited tensions, with Ndung’u maintaining that a core Kenyan shareholding group has been illegally sidelined as the brand rebuilt its market footprint.
The latest court action places the future control of one of Kenya’s most recognisable consumer brands back into legal uncertainty, prolonging a corporate feud that has reshaped the country’s high-stakes betting industry.
