President Museveni’s ball juggling skills excite SportPesa officials

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met with investors from the SportsPesa Company who were accompanied by Ugandan football administrators, at State House, Entebbe.

The SportsPesa group seeks to help the government empower the youth through football and increase revenue by strictly regulating betting.

The visiting delegation handed President Museveni a gift of a ball and jersey autographed by the Everton Football Club manager Ronald Koeman.

SportPesa, a gaming company, through its Chief Executive Officer Sportpesa, Ronald Karauri, made the appeal while meeting the Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, on Thursday, 27th July 2017 at Parliament caling for better tax administration over sports betting and gaming companies.

Karauri said taxation of the gaming sector in Uganda is a major problem largely caused by the informal gaming platforms that are difficult to regulate.

“We would like the government to simplify the tax structure especially on withholding tax and tax on gross income. Charging a fee on the initial license and an annual fee would be a better idea. We believe that gross revenue is hard to monitor especially for informal betting shops,” Karauri said.

He proposed that gaming companies should be formally set up and monitored through an online platform in order to weed out the unscrupulous betting set ups.

Karauri said that SportPesa plans on sponsoring a variety of the local Clubs, especially Express FC, the Federation for Uganda Football Association and the national league.

Oulanyah suggested that the company lobbies the government because matters pertaining to amendment in a law have to be proposed by the government.

Karauri said that SportPesa is a Kenyan gaming company operating in Kenya, Tanzania and the United Kingdom specialising in the development of sports.