How Kenya Bet Scout rates bookmakers

What are the five tests?

Every ranked bookmaker is scored out of 10 on five tests, and the final score is the weighted average. Licence and safety carries 30% of the weight and payments 25%, because those are the two things that decide whether a punter’s money is safe and whether it comes back. Offer terms, markets and jackpots, and mobile carry 15% each.

Offers count for less than many punters would expect. In Kenya, where most bets are small and most bonuses come with rollover and minimum-odds conditions, a large headline figure is often worth very little in practice, and a bookmaker shouldn’t be able to buy its way up the table with one.

Which tests decide the ranking?

The weights say how much each test is meant to matter. The spread of the actual scores shows how much it does. If every bookmaker scores about the same on a test, that test can’t separate them, however heavily it is weighted.

Licence and payments do almost all the work. Between them they can move a total by about 3 points, against under 0.9 points for the other three tests combined. Markets and mobile barely separate anyone, because nearly every ranked bookmaker offers deep football markets and an Android app, and the scores sit within a point of each other. The bottom of the table is decided almost entirely in the first two columns: the four bookmakers with no licence number seen score 3 on licence, and most of them publish little about payments either.

The scores also show how Betika reaches the top without leading on licence. SportPesa scores a point higher there, which is worth 0.3 points in the total, because it prints the only GRA-format licence number. Betika wins it back on payments, where its KSh 10 minimum and stated limits beat SportPesa’s unstated limits by two points, worth 0.5 in the total. That is the system working as intended: a bookmaker that tells punters what they can deposit and withdraw is rewarded for it.

How is a licence checked?

The licence number is read from the bookmaker’s own site, usually its footer, and then compared with its terms and conditions and, where it has them, its About and responsible-gambling pages. A number printed consistently across those pages, naming the current regulator, with a PG gaming number beside the BK betting number where the bookmaker runs casino or crash games, scores best.

A missing or unconfirmed licence number lowers the licence score heavily, and the review flags it. Four ranked bookmakers carry that flag today: GoldPari, HelaBet, KessBet and Megapari, where no licence number has been seen on their sites. Melbet’s number, BK0000196, was read from a screenshot of its footer taken from Kenya on 4 November 2026, because its site blocks visitors from elsewhere. Pages that print conflicting numbers are treated more strictly still: Pakakumi, which shows one number in its footer and another on its homepage, isn’t ranked.

The check also records which regulator the bookmaker names and which format the number takes. Kenya is part-way through moving from the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) to the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) under the Gambling Control Act 2025. Old numbers look like BK 0001117 and new ones like GRAK/2026/BK185751. A bookmaker offering casino or crash games should also print a PG gaming number next to its BK betting number.

The GRA has no searchable public register yet, so no printed number can be confirmed with the regulator from outside. Reviews therefore say “licence number printed on its own site” rather than “licensed”, and the licence score reflects what a punter can see: a consistent number, the right licence types and the current regulator named. Confirming numbers with the GRA directly is on the list of open checks.

How are paybills and limits checked?

Paybill numbers, account formats and limits come from the bookmaker’s deposit page, help centre and terms. Where those pages say nothing, the settings the bookmaker’s own site uses for its deposit and withdrawal forms are read instead, and the review says so. Betika’s paybill and limits, for example, come from its site settings because its help centre returned an error when it was checked.

The account format gets the same attention as the number, because it is the detail that makes deposits go astray. Most bookmakers use the punter’s phone number, but betPawa uses PAWA and Pepeta uses its own name. Where a limit isn’t published anywhere a logged-out visitor can see, the record says “Not stated” rather than guessing. betPawa’s minimum withdrawal, which only appears after logging in, is the clearest example.

Every payment figure is shown alongside its tax. A KSh 10 deposit is a KSh 9.50 balance after the 5% excise, and a small withdrawal loses 5% too, so the betting tax guide sits behind every payment score.

How are offers read?

Offers are read in their full terms, not from the banner. Four terms decide what an offer is worth: the rollover, the minimum odds, the time allowed and any cap on winnings. Each is recorded as the bookmaker prints it, or as “Not stated” where it isn’t, and the reviews work offers through at Kenyan stake sizes of KSh 50 to KSh 1,000 rather than at the headline maximum.

Kenyan rules on gambling advertising are strict, and offers are recorded neutrally as a result. There are no calls to sign up, no “best bonus” rankings and no suggestion that an offer is a reason to join a bookmaker. A bookmaker with no new-customer offer is shown as having none rather than being left out.

What counts under markets and mobile?

Markets and jackpots looks at what a Kenyan punter actually plays: football depth, live betting, jackpots and crash games. For jackpots the check records the number of games and the ticket price, since those decide the cost and the odds, and links to each jackpot’s page rather than quoting prize pools that change every round. Aviator and other crash games are noted together with whether the bookmaker prints a gaming licence.

Mobile looks at how a bookmaker works on the phones and data bundles most punters use. That means whether the Android app is on the Play Store or only an APK from the bookmaker’s site, how large it is, whether there is a light mobile site, and whether bets can be placed by SMS or USSD. SportPesa takes SMS bets on 79079 and OdiBets on 29680. Betika lists SMS and *644# for registration but publishes no format for betting by SMS, and the review says so.

What can’t be checked from outside Kenya?

Several bookmakers block visitors from outside Kenya, and some of the research is done from a connection in Ireland. A block page proves nothing about whether a bookmaker works in Kenya, so a bookmaker is never marked down for one. Records for the blocked sites come from checks made from Kenya, such as the Melbet footer screenshot. GameMania hasn’t been checked from Kenya yet, so it isn’t ranked.

No accounts are opened and no money is deposited for these checks. That keeps the checks independent of any bookmaker’s sign-up offer, but it also means anything behind a login is out of reach, and withdrawal speed hasn’t been timed. Where a review discusses withdrawals, it reports the limits and wording the bookmaker publishes, not a test payout.

How often is the information re-checked?

Every bookmaker record carries the date its facts were checked, and every fact in the research files carries its source page. The site’s own build check flags any record more than 60 days old, so a stale record can’t go unnoticed. The current records were all checked on 30 October 2026.

Offers and jackpots change more often than licences or paybills, so they are the first things re-checked before any page that mentions them is updated. When a fact changes, the score that depends on it is re-worked from the same evidence, and the evidence line beside the score changes with it.

Does commission affect the scores?

Kenya Bet Scout may earn a commission when a punter joins a bookmaker through its links. It never changes a score, a rank or what a review says. The ranks are worked out from the weighted scores, so there is no way to place a bookmaker higher than its evidence allows, and a bookmaker can’t pay to be listed or to move up. The About page explains how the site is paid.

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