SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Ugandan football referee Emmanuel Kiwewa has been suspended for allegedly soliciting a bribe for a University Football League match.
The Federation of Ugandan Football Association (Fufa) is investigating the allegations after he was suspended by the Fufa Referees Standing Committee (FRSC).
As reported in the Daily Monitor, the FRSC has directed the following statement at the official. “The [Fufa] referees standing committee has been made aware of allegations against you following the incidents in the context of the match between UMU vs SLAU played on October 18, 2019 at Nkozi grounds of which the details are you contacted a university official soliciting for a bribe so as to manipulate or influence the results of the aforementioned match.”
Kiwewa was already in the spotlight for cancelling a Ronald Sempala header that should have given Bright Stars the lead in a 1-1 draw against KCCA in the country’s top flight.
It has been a turbulent time for sports betting in Uganda since president Yoweri Museveni ordered in February of this year that no new licences can be issued for established sports betting, gaming, and gambling companies. In addition, he stressed that permits issued to existing firms will not be renewed when they expire.
This operator shut down was a big talking point at last month’s Betting on Sports conference in London, where Mathew Symmonds, CEO and Founder at Web Analysis Solutions Limited, discussed the impact on the structuring of deals for affiliates in Africa.
Symonds, whose company runs football tipster sites WinDrawWin.com and Predictz.com, admitted that the situation in Uganda and Kenya – where the government has initiated a hostile tax dispute against the betting industry – makes it difficult for affiliates to have any confidence in revenue share deals.
He said: “I still think revenue share is great in Africa, but moving forward in Uganda or Kenya can you commit to a revenue share deal that’s going to pay you over the next few years as the customer’s lifetime evolves or do you want a CPA up front?
“Operators probably look at average CPAs as fairly low, whereas if we divide our revenue share by player numbers we’re seeing much, much higher values than we would be offered on CPA.
“So it’s quite a dilemma – do we take the money up front and take one fifth of what we would earn, or do we just chance it on revenue share and hope that operator won’t be shut down.”
