SportPesa is a really popular betting platform in the country and they have gained prominence of late thanks to their sponsorship deals with various entities in sports. Locally they sponsor the Premier League, the Kenya Rugby Union (recently) and a while ago, they announced that they are now sponsors of the hugely popular English football club, Arsenal. They have made another move on the English football scene as Hull FC announced on Twitter that SportPesa is now their official sponsor.
📑 | We are delighted to announce and welcome @SportPesa as our new official sponsor https://t.co/ArsIaVKfxH pic.twitter.com/Q8ds9fPAVq
— Hull City (@HullCity) July 25, 2016
The deal is apparently for three seasons and as the football club said on the Twitter account, it was their “most lucrative in the Club’s proud 112 year history.”
📑 | The new sponsorship deal with @SportPesa is the most lucrative in the Club’s proud 112-year history
— Hull City (@HullCity) July 25, 2016
This announcement was most certainly a surprise and immediately drew interest from both Kenyans and Britons alike. Starting with Kenyans, the general feeling was of shock and surprise which made them make fun of the news.
Can they sponsor the elections?
At this rate SportPesa will be the official sponsors for next years elections
— Dee (@Dee_spicable) July 25, 2016
Memes were shared.
Sportpesa heading to England pic.twitter.com/jnhEB128Xv
— Masaku (@masaku_) July 25, 2016
Others shared an account of the various institutions and projects the company has sponsored.
Sportpesa:
300M- AFC and GOR
607M- KRU
450M- KPL
100M – City Stadium
"Multi-Million shirt sponsorship"- Hull City pic.twitter.com/F6CpjPJMlm— 🤷🏾♂️ (@sickolia_) July 25, 2016
Kenyans want SportPesa to fund infrastructure in the country
Sportpesa should invest in infrastructure . Me thinks this idea will be heavenly. Imagine having a railway company with them?
— Sir-Rap-alot (@OsamaOtero) July 25, 2016
Can we vote for @SportPesa to run our country for just a year?
— Brian Mbunde ™ (@Brianmbunde) July 25, 2016
For Hull FC fans, they were mostly confused about the whole situation since they have never heard of SportPesa before.
Who?!
— Gemma Haire (@gemzyhaire) July 25, 2016
Some replied to the tweet by tweeting some of the things that are associated with Kenya like “Hakuna Matata” and “Jambo.”
hakuna matata😂😂😂.
— Ssentongo (@roger_sent) July 25, 2016
https://twitter.com/asahcafc/status/757488176327950336
Others kept reading SportPesa differently
https://twitter.com/linda_Hull25/status/757491966582063104
Some decided to give the club tips to use the money
nice, can they supply a manager and half a dozen players as well please? x
— Ian Swatman (@ianswatman) July 25, 2016
SportPesa has really made quite the effort to build their brand by branching out of the county and sponsoring two English clubs. I won’t be surprised if they made another big sponsorship deal and it will still trend on the various social media platforms.
