Check our comprehensive list with bookmakers in Kenya and their free bonuses. We’ve selected only reliable sportsbooks with the top gambling deals.
Find the best bookmakers in Kenya
Kenya is among the most active and rapidly developing gambling markets in Africa. With 45 million citizens, Kenya is the largest economy in East Africa and bookmakers in Kenya offer services to a nation whose living standard is above the average in Africa.
Kenyan bookmakers and Kenya betting sites generate over $20 million a year in gross revenues from gambling. Analysts believe that the gambling industry will witness two-fold growth within a few years. It is a moderate estimate as the country boast that some 35.9 million out of 45 million Kenyans are active gamblers and place offline and online wagers on a regular basis.
The betting industry is booming in Kenya also because local residents love to bet on virtually everything and a sportsbook in Kenya will never experience difficulties with attracting new bettors. The country enjoys a relatively liberal gambling legislation, which adds to the overall growth of the betting industry.
Online and mobile betting in Kenya is gaining popularity rapidly, fuelling the rapid growth of the industry as a whole. Overall, the future looks bright for the gambling industry in Kenya.
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Is betting in Kenya legal
The country started regulating the gaming industry back in 1966 by adopting the Betting, Lotteries, and Gaming Act. The local legislation basically allows all forms of gambling as the respective gambling operator is holding a license by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).
Sportsbooks in Kenya are licensed under the same legislation, which was amended to cover online betting since 2013. All in all, any Kenyan citizen or a punter visiting Kenya is eligible to place offline and online wagers if he/she is of legal age, which in Kenya is 18 years.
Availability of sportsbooks in Kenya
The list of betting sites in Kenya is long while bookmakers in Kenya are offering wagers on various sports and other events. Kenya betting sites include pages by local bookmakers and well-known global bookmakers, who have entered the lucrative local market.
About 30 different bookmakers have licenses to operate in Kenya and many more are offering services to Kenyan punters online. You must know that some of the foreign operators offering online betting to Kenyans are not licensed by the local authorities.
Nonetheless, you can safely place Kenyan bets with most of them, as the government does not take actions to prevent bettors from placing wagers online and both punters and online bookmakers are not prosecuted.
As we said, a growing number of mobile and online bookmakers are targeting the local market and the list of new betting sites in Kenya in 2018 vastly exceeds the number of online bookmakers in other African nations. As the online market for Kenyan bets is expanding, there are no news of betting sites in Kenya in 2017 that were blocked.
Actually, the Kenya government is quite liberal toward Kenya betting sites, regardless of their country of origin.
🎯 You may also like:Kenya betting sites with free bonus
You can easily place a free bet in Kenya with many local and foreign bookmakers offering sports betting bonuses and free bets for Kenyan players.
There are a large number of Kenya betting sites with registration bonus; actually, most sportsbooks are encouraging new players by offering various sign up bonuses. In addition, you can find a good number of Kenya betting sites that give free bets on different sports events or during specific periods. Free bets can be subject to additional conditions such as minimum deposit betting amount, however.
Of course, there are options for free sports bet with no deposit required in Kenya but you need to make a more thorough research to find these promotions or better consult our list of the betting sites in Kenya with bonus to find the best offers.
The cash amount of free bets and bonuses for Kenyan bets varies greatly and depends on the bookmakers you have selected. You can find free bets amounting to $30 but the cash value of free bets may go as high as over $100 at some bookmakers.
There are more free bets in Kenya in 2018 as never before due to the growing number of online bookmakers targeting Kenyan punters. The best betting sites in Kenya offer both advantageous odds and in-game bets as they introduce wider set of online betting options.
Actually, it is hard to say what is the best live betting site in Kenya, following the expansion to Kenya of leading world sportsbooks and bookmakers.
Deposits and withdrawals at Kenya betting sites
Both the lowest betting sites in Kenya and the best betting sites in Kenya support a variety or traditional and online gambling payment methods to deposit betting cash and withdraw your winnings from betting.
Punters can rest assured that virtually all bookmakers in Kenya are accepting VISA and MasterCard for Kenya bets. A good number of local bookmakers also support bank wires while selected sportsbooks accept prepaid cards such as Paysafecard.
You must also know that while established foreign bookmakers are accepting e-wallets such as Neteller, Skrill and PayPal, some Kenyan bookmakers do not support some online payment processors.
Some of the best betting sites in Kenya tend to support alternative payment methods for mobile betting, using less known services to process betting payments. Billing through mobile operators is a widespread payment method for placing wagers in Kenya.
Popular sports for Kenyan bets
You will experience no difficulties finding football betting sites in Kenya. This is the most popular sport to bet in Kenya and any sportsbook in Kenya supports multiple football leagues.
All the top European and Latin American football leagues are supported and Kenyan bettors can put wagers also on sports events such as the Champions League and Copa Libertadores. Special bonuses and promotions are available on these popular football competitions.
Other popular sports for betting in Kenya include basketball, tennis, volleyball and handball. Punters have access to odds on North American sports such as baseball and American football and bets are available on other sports like rugby and cricket as well.
Kenyans are eager to bet on anything, so the bookmakers in Kenya have no difficulty finding a new game or sports for which to offer odds.
Taxation on Kenyan bets
Kenyan gamblers, bookmakers and casino operators have enjoyed very low tax rates for a long period during the 1970s and 2013. The new Finance Act, adopted back in 2013, introduces a 20 percent withholding tax on all winnings from gambling for players. The tax rate is applicable to both cash and prize winnings.
Since 2016, amendments to the Finance Act, stipulate that casinos and gambling companies are subject to a 12-percent tax on their turnover. Betting companies used owe 7.5 percent in taxes on their gambling turnover to the state.
Recently the tax on gambling was increased from 7.5 percent to 35 percent, which was a massive blow for the local bookmakers and sportsbooks.
That said, you should expect bookmakers and sportsbooks in Kenya to not burden you with additional betting charges due to the taxation on their gambling revenues but in the same time you should carefully check whether you owe any taxes on your winnings while in Kenya.
What you need to know about Kenya betting sites
The recent increase in taxes on sports betting and gambling is forcing many Kenyan residents and punters visiting Kenya to choose foreign-based bookmakers to place their online bets. Betting with a foreign bookie is easy once you have access to the Internet and no legal action is taken on Kenya betting sites that are based outside the country.
One more thing to bear in mind; while the local currency is the Kenya shilling, only a few sportsbooks are accepting deposits in Kenya’s national currency. Therefore, it is worth opening a bank account or an e-wallet account in one of the popular currencies such as the US dollar, British pound, Euro or Swiss franc if you plan to place online wagers in Kenya.
Another currency that sportsbooks use for online betting in Kenya is the Australian dollar.
Also, consider opening an account with a mobile payment service as it seems to be the most popular payment method for betting in Kenya.
Betting with a local sportsbook in Kenya
The Kenyan betting market is split into two major segments that involve local sportsbooks in Kenya and Kenya betting sites that are operated by foreign bookmakers. About 10 licensed sportsbooks in Kenya accept deposits in Kenyan shilling and respectively pay off winnings in the national currency of Kenya.
Bettors who prefer to place bets with a local sportsbook in Kenya are either unwilling to deal with exchange rates or prefer traditional payment methods to electronic and online payments.
You should be aware, however, that as a rule these bookmakers in Kenya are offering lower odds as compared to the best betting sites in Kenya. Foreign bookmakers have marked advantage over their local counterparts, as they are not being heavily taxed by the Kenyan government. Thus, they are able to offer better odds in addition to other betting promotions and wagering bonuses.
What the future holds for bookmakers in Kenya
Bookmakers in Kenya are engaged in an ongoing debate concerning what is the fair and acceptable taxation rate on revenues from gambling. The current tax rate of 35 percent on turnover from gambling operations prevents the local bookmakers from competing on equal terms with their foreign counterparts.
On the other hand, the government is not taking any significant legal action against foreign online bookmakers that offer services to Kenyan punters.
High taxation for local operators and uninterrupted operations of foreign sportsbooks do not prevent Kenyan bettor from engaging in gambling activities, as planned by the government in Nairobi.
The current legislative framework only encourages local bettor to place wagers at foreign online bookmakers, which in some cases results in Kenyan gamblers being unprotected against fraudsters.
What is evident is that less educated punters will stay with a sportsbook in Kenya, while those who are willing to place bets online and can use modern technology tools will prefer Kenya betting sites owned by foreign bookmakers or will place wagers on mobile betting services.
Finding the best bookmakers in Kenya
Your choice of best betting sites in Kenya largely depends on whether you are willing to stick with a Kenyan sportsbook or prefer to place online bets at a foreign bookmaker. There are actually no barriers to market entry for new betting sites in Kenya in 2018, as they do not face legal actions by the government.
Thus, plenty of Kenya betting sites with free bonus are on our list of the best betting sites in Kenya, including football betting sites in Kenya.
As we mentioned above, local sportsbooks are offering lower odds compared with foreign online bookmakers while only selected bookmakers accept deposits in Kenyan shillings altogether. The current situation on the Kenyan betting market clearly favors foreign bookmakers, which also support a broader choice of currencies and payment methods.
What you should look for is a sportsbook that has at least a few years of betting history and a proven track record of paying off winnings. On the other hand, we see that new betting sites in Kenya in 2018 are offering more advantageous odds and higher bonuses compared to some of the established market players.
It is a common practice for new market entrants to provide better odds and various betting bonuses to lure punters, so you can only benefit from the offers for free bets in Kenya in 2018. Sure, preliminary research is required when planning to deposit money at a new online bookmaker based off or outside Kenya.
Take a look at our selection of the best betting sites in Kenya if you are unsure which bookmakers offer the best odds and the most beneficial bookmakers’ bonuses for Kenyan bets.
Each of the listed betting sites in Kenya is a reputable betting service that accepts deposits in different currencies and supports various traditional and online payment methods. Most of them have also adopted a responsible gambling policy.
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