How To Identify and Avoid Scam Betting Sites in Kenya

The first and most important safeguard is the licence. In Kenya, all gambling activities are governed by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB). The BCLB issues and renews licences and can suspend or revoke operators that break the rules.

A legitimate bookmaker should be able to show a current BCLB licence and clearly display its company name, trading name, and physical address.

Crucially, BCLB maintains public lists of currently licensed operators. Before you deposit a shilling, confirm the site appears on the “Licensed Operators / Current Licences” page and that the trading name matches the website you’re using.

If the brand name differs from the legal company name on BCLB, the site should state both and make the link clear (e.g., “XYZ Betting operated by ABC Ltd”). If you can’t reconcile the names, treat it as a red flag.

Here is a simple rule: No BCLB licence, no play—no matter how attractive the odds or the bonus.

In Kenya, most betting deposits run through M-Pesa Paybill. That makes payment checks particularly powerful.

MPesa is operated by Safaricom, which works hand-in-hand with Kenya’s betting authorities to ensure that only licensed and safe operators get MPesa PayBill numbers.

Ideally, every betting site should boldly display their PayBill number on their home page. This is a clear sign that the bookmaker is legit.

If you cannot find the PayBill number of a site, treat this as a red flag.

Having said that, some betting sites leave out their MPesa details out of oversight. However, you should be able to see the PayBill number at the point of making a deposit.

Almost all betting sites give bonuses, and almost all of these bonuses have their own terms and conditions. Ideally, we’d advise you to take your and study these terms, but that can be quite challenging and time-consuming.

However, there are some instant red flags that can give away a bad bonus, one of the major ones being unrealistic bonus wagering requirements.

Take for example, a KSh 5,000 bonus with a 50x wagering requirement on odds at 3.00 or more, to be completed in 3 days. That’s designed to make you fail. And if a bookmaker cannot be reasonable with its bonus terms, there is every reason to question the intentions and legitimacy of the bookie.

While betting can be fun and rewarding, it can also get very addictive and frustrating. In case of the latter, bettors often need assistance to help regain control of their activities.

Proper betting sites are aware of this, and have installed responsible gambling tools on their pages to give their customers greater control over their betting activities.

Such tools include self-exclusion, deposit limits and age verification. If a betting site has not bothered to implement this on this site, it is a sign that the bookmaker does not really care about you, and might be an early indication of future issues. You are better off avoiding that bookie.

In this age of largely unregulated Social Media activities, scammers have found a safe haven on such platforms.

Now scam sites make use of social media influencers to push their campaigns to unsuspecting Kenyans. This is not to say that there aren’t legit campaigns on Social Media. The point here is that there are opportunities to fall into the trap of scam sites.

Treat flashy influencer promos with caution, verify the licence yourself, and never deposit just because a creator you like “swears by it.”

Telltale signs of a potential social media scam:

• Screenshots of huge “wins” with no verifiable bet IDs.

• Links to URLs that aren’t the brand’s official domain (e.g., link-shorteners, mirror domains)

• Requests to “DM for Paybill” or “send to this number only.”

If anything feels off, stop. There are plenty of compliant alternatives.