SportPesa has reaffirmed its commitment to support the Shujaa reclaim their ‘lost’ pride and glory after being relegated from the HSBC World Rugby series.
To help develop the talent locally as a feeder into the national team, SportPesa has taken up this year’s rugby 7s circuit title sponsorship, dubbed the SportPesa National Sevens Circuit.
With uncertainty in the last couple of weeks, whether SportPesa will withdraw its partnership, SportPesa CEO, Hon. Cpt. Ronald Karauri noted that the sponsorship will NOT STOP.
“We will continue to invest in our national team and do further support for the local clubs. We are confident that with the right leadership in place, we will see budding talent come out of the SportPesa 7s circuit. Our support and strong commitment should be a steering force to make this vision a reality,” said Cpt. Karauri.
He was speaking during a breakfast with the Kenya Rugby Union, Shujaa and Lioness players, as well as the representatives from the participating teams in the circuit.
In the new arrangement, SportPesa is injecting 15,000,000 shillings to support the local rugby circuit annually, for 3 years. However, this will be reviewed year on year from the second year.
This will see support for the union and the 6 hosting clubs of the circuit, starting with this weekend’s Dala 7s in Kisumu, to be followed by Mombasa and the rest of the other 4.
“As a new office, we know we will eventually get back to the world stage as soon as possible. We commend SportPesa because their journey with rugby goes a long way, this is a beginning of greater things to come, starting with the #SportPesa7sCircuit,” said Kenya Rugby Union CEO, Alexander Mutai.
SportPesa will issue each of the hosting clubs up to 1,000,000 shillings to help put together successful tournaments. Participants of the SportPesa 7s Circuit will also have handsome prize monies of up to 2,500,000 million to fight for across the circuit.
Going further, SportPesa will also inject 22,000,000 shillings into the Shujaa to help build-up and preparation for getting back into the world stage. Once they are back, the amount will be reviewed upwards and will significantly increase year on year.
