Betting and Gambling Sector Controls Kenya’s Media Advertising Sector

The betting and gambling sector control Kenya’s Advertising Sector, a new report has revealed.

The report dubbed Kenya Media Landscape Report 2019 revealed that in the year 2018, 22 percent of advertising spends in the Kenyan Media came from the betting and gambling sector.

This was a growth in advertising spends from 2017’s 20 percent spends in advertising.

This sector’s high spends is driven by increased competition which is manifested by a proliferation of new players into the local industry which is deemed to be very lucrative.

Betting and gambling advertising spends have grown tremendously over the last five years from a mere 0.3 percent in 2014 to a 22 percent share of the total advertising spends in 2018.

In 2018, out of the top spenders in advertising in the media, 3 of the top spenders were from the betting and gambling sector, with Tatua being the highest spender at 5.36 billion shillings, followed by Lotto at 4.59 billion shillings and Shabiki at 3.16 billion shillings.

Advertising Remains Key Source of Revenue for Kenyan Media

Meanwhile, the advertising expenditure remains the primary source of revenue for the Kenyan media.

The year 2017 marked the highest advertising spends over the last five years, which could have been attributed to campaign advertising by political parties.

In 2017, the total advertising spends came to a record of 108.0 billion shillings, a 26 percent growth from the previous year where the advertising spends stood at 85.8 billion shillings.

Radio is currently the most utilized medium for advertising mainly attributed to the large audience it attracts compared to TV and print.

As it currently stands, there are a record of 173 radio media brands in Kenya compared to only 68 TV media brands.

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