Via Kenyan Business Feed
Record Kenyan Premier League (KPL) champions Gor Mahia are facing legal action from new KPL sponsors BetKing for flouting a sponsorship deal.
The 19 times premiership champions are being sued by Betking Kenya after the club declined to actualize a shirt sponsorship deal with the betting firm after accepting a Ksh.15million downpayent.
Despite pocketing the downpayment, the KPL champions opted to instead sign a deal with Betsafe.
“It is a serious issue and Betking are going to take legal action against Gor Mahia for taking their money and refusing to sign their deal,” said our source who sought anonymity.
Details in our possession indicate that Betking had offered Gor Mahia a Ksh.30million shirt sponsorship deal but the club opted to sign with Betsafe which had offered Ksh.50million.
According to sources, Gor Mahia officials received BetKing’s money and banked the amount in a new account and not the club’s official account at National Bank of Kenya (NBK) where only three officials involved in the deal are signatories.
Even with that money in the account the from the money, the officials decided to pay players one month’s half salary and pocketed the rest of the loot.
Betsafe have already given the club a down-payment of Sh.5million and it remains unclear whether the players have received part of the money. Similarly, in 2016, a similar scenario played out when Gor Mahia received a downpayment for an anticipated shirt sponsorship deal from Betway only to seal a deal with Sportpesa.