The valuable SportPesa gaming brand was sold for Sh14.7 million (£100,000) in June this year triggering the ongoing war among the key founders of the sports gambling platform.
According to Business Daily Pevans East Africa, the owner of the SportPesa trade mark, signed a sale agreement on June 2 to transfer the brand to UK-based Sportpesa Global Holdings Limited.
Pevans and Sportpesa Global share directors and shareholders, however, fell out over the transaction as the decision to transfer the brand was not unanimous.
Pevans’ chief executive Ronald Karauri signed the deed of assignment on behalf of Pevans East Africa with Kalina Karadzhova, a Bulgarian national and a resident of the Isle of Man, signing the deed on behalf of Sportpesa Global where she serves as a director.
In what looks like a well orchestrated plan. Karauri would then later emerge with a controlling 54.4pc stake in Milestone Games Limited, the company that was subsequently assigned the right to use the SportPesa trade mark in Kenya by Sportpesa Global.
Entrepreneurs Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Maina, who own a combined 38pc stake in Pevans, have accused the CEO and the foreign investors of locking them out of the firm’s management and strategic decisions since 2017.
The fight for the control of the gaming platform which is estimated to have a loyal customer base of 12 million Kenyans and generated Sh150 billion in revenue in the year 2018 alone is far from over.
“In consideration of the sum of £100,000, the assignor hereby assigns to the assignee absolutely with full title guarantee all its rights, title and interest in and to the trade marks,” the agreement says.
“Any payments to be made to the assignor under this clause shall be set off against any amounts owed by the assignor to the assignee or any other member of the assignee’s group to the extent possible.”
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