Kenyan tycoon and Member of Parliament Ronald Karauri and other founders are steadily losing control of Kenya’s leading sports betting platform, SportPesa, after a recent share transaction reshaped the ownership of Milestone Games Ltd, the company that operates the brand in the country.

Over the past four years, Milestone Games has shifted from being controlled by a small group of Kenyan investors to being majority-owned by companies registered in the United Arab Emirates. The latest change also brought Commtech Consortium Ltd. into the shareholding, giving the company a 25 percent stake in the betting operator.

Business Registration Service records show UAE-registered companies now hold the majority of Milestone Games. The shift marks a sharp change for Karauri and Robert Macharia, who co-founded SportPesa in 2014 and helped build it into Kenya’s best-known betting brand. Once the company’s dominant shareholders, the two founders now own only small minority stakes as offshore investors have taken control.

Corporate filings show UAE-registered Techglow Ltd is SportPesa’s largest shareholder, controlling a 54 percent stake through investment vehicle Nob Five Ltd. Kenya-registered Commtech Consortium Ltd owns 25 percent, while White Hart Ltd holds 11.6 percent. Karauri, who serves as SportPesa’s CEO, now owns 3 percent, down from 13.4 percent. Macharia, the company’s co-founder and legal officer, holds 0.75 percent after previously controlling as much as 71 percent through various companies.

Offshore ownership shadows East African betting

The new ownership structure has attracted attention because Techglow Ltd has no publicly known website, local operations, or social media presence despite controlling one of East Africa’s largest betting companies. The company is incorporated in Ras Al Khaimah, a UAE jurisdiction where free-zone rules shield shareholder and director records from public disclosure, making it difficult to determine who ultimately owns the business.

Questions have also been raised about Commtech Consortium. The Kenyan company, incorporated in March 2023, is owned by Dadson Wahagi Mugo, who holds 80 percent, and Elvis Charo Kitsao, who owns the remaining 20 percent. Even so, its links to offshore structures have prompted scrutiny over the identities of the ultimate investors behind the company.

Commtech has also featured in another closely watched corporate transaction outside the betting industry. The company previously owned a 22.5 percent stake in Konvergenz Network Solutions, the firm building and leasing the Social Health Authority’s KSh104.8 billion ($810 million) digital health platform to the Kenyan government. It later transferred that stake to Starway Trading Ltd, another company registered in the United Arab Emirates.

SportPesa restructuring obscures true ownership structure

The transfer has added to questions about whether ownership has genuinely changed hands or whether the transactions simply make it harder to identify the ultimate beneficiaries. The latest ownership changes follow years of restructuring at SportPesa. In 2019, the Kenya Revenue Authority revoked the licence of the brand’s original operator, Pevans East Africa, after a tax dispute linked to an alleged multi-billion-shilling offshore transfer.

A year later, the SportPesa trademark was sold to a UK company for £100,000 before being licensed to the newly formed Milestone Games, a move that sidelined minority shareholders including Paul Ndung’u and Asenath Wachera. The restructuring sparked years of court battles, including allegations involving a forged court order.

The company is also facing tax challenges. In April 2026, the Kenya Revenue Authority sought to freeze KSh1 billion ($7.72 million) held in Milestone Games’ bank accounts, arguing the company owed unpaid excise duty and withholding tax. Milestone Games successfully challenged the move before the Tax Appeals Tribunal.

The ownership changes come as Kenya’s betting industry continues to expand despite tighter regulation. Bettors wagered KSh330.5 billion ($2.55 billion) in the year ended June 2026 as the country ushered in a new regulatory regime. The Gambling Control Act, which took effect in July, replaced the former regulator with the Gambling Regulatory Authority, giving the new agency broader powers over licensing, compliance and financial oversight.