Sports betting operator SportPesa’s future in its home market Kenya remains up in the air as a new online betting rival enters the fray. 

On Thursday, SportPesa execs were scheduled to meet with Kenya’s Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB) to discuss whether the company would be able to continue operating in Kenya under a license issued to Milestone Games Ltd, a firm majority controlled by SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri. 

Word has yet to leak out as to what occurred during the meeting, nor whether any of the participants survived. Such is the bad blood that has built up between the regulator and SportPesa/Milestone in the month or so since the tandem attempted to revive the dormant SportPesa brand in Kenya. 

Before the hearing, Kenyan media reported a heretofore unknown tidbit regarding ownership of the SportPesa brand, which is at the heart of the dispute. A UK corporate filing – signed on September 15 but backdated to June 2 – indicates that the SportPesa trademark was transferred from Kenyan firm Pevans East Africa to SportPesa Global Holdings Ltd (SPGH) for £100k.