Kenya's Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) expects to introduce a licence class for prediction-market platforms as it considers how to bring contracts on future events under its gambling rules.
The authority has opened its 2026/27 licensing period, and several businesses have approached it about the category, according to an interview with GRA Director General, Peter Karimi, published by Business Daily on 18 October.
The class has not yet been issued, and no application terms or start date have been announced.
Karimi said the GRA regards prediction markets as gambling because participants stake money on outcomes that have yet to occur. Platforms can offer contracts linked to sport, elections or economic indicators, rather than the fixed-odds events familiar to licensed bookmakers.
The Gambling Control Act 2025 lists online bookmaking, online lottery and online casino licences. It also permits further gambling forms to be prescribed through regulations, giving the authority a legal route to define a separate prediction-market category.
The existing online provisions require approved control systems and measures covering payments, age checks, advertising and regulator access to transaction data.
Technical conditions remain to be set for contracts that can be bought and sold across borders. Karimi identified geography and currency as particular difficulties, with some services limited to overseas customers and others using cryptocurrency for deposits and withdrawals.
GRA has not specified which event types a new licence would permit, whether cryptocurrency transactions would be allowed or how it would assess firms that already operate in the market. Separate technical requirements may be needed, but no proposal has been published.
The potential market sits alongside a substantial existing appetite for wagering. In a June survey across seven African countries, GeoPoll found that 64% of its Kenyan respondents had placed at least one football bet during the previous 12 months. That finding describes the survey group rather than a national participation rate.
Karimi said: "We have to prepare for the fact that marketing knows no bounds."
In August, Kenya's High Court allowed the GRA to implement contested licensing fees while the challenge to the regulations continued.
Business Daily identified 5050 Markets, EvenMarket and Spreadhit as unlicensed platforms available to Kenyan users at the time of its report
