Fake court order and vicious fight for Sportpesa ownership

A forged court order intended to bar businessman Paul Ndung’u from participating in a dispute over SportPesa has been nullified by the Court of Appeal, revealing a deeper legal and ownership crisis surrounding Kenya’s most prominent betting brand.

Ndung’u, who claims a 17 per cent stake in Pevans East Africa, had been sidelined in a shareholder war by a now-discredited injunction that allegedly blocked him from challenging the use of the SportPesa trademark by Milestone Games.

The forgery has triggered a police investigation into a top lawyer, intensifying scrutiny over a bitter corporate dispute dating back to Pevans’ 2019 licence revocation.

The court found the disputed injunction was neither extended nor lawfully binding, allowing Ndung’u to challenge the controversial transfer of SportPesa’s brand to Milestone Games, a company formed by other shareholders excluding him.

The Gaming Board and BCLB had disowned the consent that facilitated the transition.

The matter is complicated by high-stakes interests.

Milestone is now led by Ronald Karauri and Robert Macharia, while foreign investors and directors such as Gene Grand and Kalpakchiev collectively hold significant shares.

The dilution of Ndung’u’s stake and that of Asenath Wachira, from 38 per cent to 0.8 per cent, is now under appeal.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s betting market has surged, with daily wagers averaging Sh274million and annual revenue hitting Sh24.07billion by March 2025.

SportPesa alone reportedly declared dividends totalling Sh7.6billion in the first half of 2025, signaling the lucrative stakes involved.

The genuine High Court order restrained Ndung’u from dealing in Pevans East Africa, the owner of SportPesa, for two weeks.

That order was valid only until 24 January 2023. However, the fictitious order carried different wording. It claimed the court had granted an injunction that blocked Ndung’u and his agents in perpetuity.

Milestone Games filed the forged order in the Court of Appeal, and judges relied on it to block him from joining the consent challenge over the SportPesa trademark.

Milestone Games and the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) allegedly signed the disputed consent.

However, five of seven BCLB directors disowned the deal and denied approving SportPesa’s trademark use.

Ndung’u appealed to join the case challenging the consent. His application was dismissed on 11 February 2023 by three Court of Appeal judges.

He argued Milestone Games had filed “a fraudulent manufactured court order” that misled the court and caused dismissal of his application.

The fake order partly led Justices Daniel Musinga, Mumbi Ngugi, and George Odunga to reverse the 2023 Court of Appeal decision.

They ruled that Ndung’u had a right to participate in the suit.

“The issue of his alleged expulsion as a shareholder of Pevans requires proper interrogation, and that would be impossible unless Paul is joined as a party to the appeal and other proceedings that are pending in court,” said the three judges.

“Turning to the orders of injunction issued by the High Court on 12 January 2023, Paul (Ndung’u) stated, and rightly so, in our view, that the said orders were interim in nature and lapsed by operation of the law as they had not been extended. Milestone did not challenge that averment,” added the judges.

The judgment triggered criminal investigations of the top lawyer by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). The forgery case is under OB 23/08/09/2025.

The SportPesa dispute pits former partners against each other with one faction being Ndung’u and Asenath Wachera, with a combined 38 per cent ownership, are fighting other shareholders.

The rival faction includes Chief Executive Ronald Karauri and foreign investors controlling nearly half the company.

The regulator cancelled Pevans East Africa’s licence in July 2019 for alleged non-payment of taxes.

In October 2020, Milestone Games entered the betting business with the SportPesa brand. Some Pevans shareholders created this new company but excluded Ndung’u and Maina.

Karauri and Robert Macharia, who had 3 per cent in Pevans, became beneficial owners of Milestone Games. They held 71 per cent and 14 per cent stakes respectively.

The dispute triggered a fierce legal battle over the SportPesa trademark and web domains, with multiple suits filed in Kenyan courts and London.

Ndung’u and Maina held stakes of 17 per cent and 21 per cent in Pevans. They now face being forced out without compensation. The two have gone to court to challenge their expulsion and the transfer of SportPesa’s brand to Milestone Games.

Trouble deepened in October 2022 when shareholders held a general meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and expelled Ndung’u and Maina under a special resolution.

After the expulsion, directors, including Karauri and Macharia, sought court orders. They wanted Ndung’u and Maina barred from filing any case on behalf of the company. They argued that the two had no authority after being expelled.

Ndung’u says the High Court threatened to close a pending case filed in 2022 before the Judicial Review division. He argued that the Court of Appeal’s earlier decision now bound the High Court. He added that Pevan’s operations remain dormant, causing him financial loss as a shareholder. Meanwhile, he said Milestone Games continues to use Pevans’ assets.

Ndung’u avers that he discovered on 5 November 2024 that parties had settled the appeal challenging SportPesa’s brand transfer through consent. Under this agreement, BCLB and Milestone Games said they had resolved disputes over operational permits and SportPesa’s brand use out of court. The High Court dismissed the consent, saying the dispute required a full trial. Milestone Games appealed the decision and later sought to terminate suits via consent while blocking Ndung’u.

SportPesa launched in Kenya in 2014 through Pevans. Its investors also held nearly similar stakes in UK-based SportPesa Global Holdings Limited. That entity owns gaming subsidiaries in other markets, including Tanzania.

American Gene Grand owned a 21 per cent stake in Pevans. Bulgarians Guerassim Nikolov, Nikolae Mineva, and Ivan Kalpakchiev together held 26 per cent.

The group earned dividends of Sh7.6 billion (€50 million) in four and a half years to June 2019. These dividends underscored SportPesa’s cash-rich status before internal disputes erupted.