Kenya’s sports betting market was generating monthly turnover of US$281m before the government’s ill-advised 2019 decision to ‘get tough’ with bookmakers.

On Monday, local media outlet The Nation reported seeing leaked Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB) data detailing Kenyan-licensed bookmakers’ revenue declarations for May 2019, immediately prior to the government issuing dubious back-tax demands to BCLB betting licensees.

The BCLB data reportedly shows market-wide turnover of over Ksh30b ($280.9m) in May 2019, encompassing some 180m individual wagers. That averages out to roughly Ksh167 ($1.56) per wager, in a country where the average monthly income is around Ksh12k.

The figures include both online and retail betting figures, but a source told The Nation that the retail figures, which lack the digital trail that allows the BCLB to verify the online operators’ filings, were likely to be seriously under-reported, meaning the overall turnover figure could be much higher.