Betting has hit radio, let’s debate this thing

By Kodi Barth

So, Kenya’s betting craze has come to radio.

In the old days, it used to be that listeners would vote over trivia, some useless piece of information. Like, “How many commandments are in the 10 commandments?”

In the studio, a random winner would be drawn. And with much fanfare, the winner would be sent mobile airtime or Sh1,000.

Well, not anymore. In a master stroke Royal Media Services has taken the game to the skies. Every day of the week, several times a day, a listener on the media behemoth’s Citizen Radio or its 13 channels in multiple languages is called up to collect Sh100,000 in winnings.

What did such winners do to win? They sent Sh100, sometimes only a shilling, to an M-Pesa Paybill number, which every other presenter announced on air, many times.

So, from where does the radio station get those millions to pay the winners every day?

Quick arithmetic. Let’s say that your national audience on a 30-minute “show” is 100,000 listeners. Of these, only 10 per cent sent in the Sh100. That would be Sh1,000,000. In 30 minutes.

People are awake, what, 18 hours a day? Well, let’s say you milked this cow for only half that, 9 hours. How many 30 minutes are in 9 hours, 18? What’s Sh1,000,000 times 18?

Whatever number of zeroes you put at the end of your total shillings there, that’s earnings for a day. What’s the sum in a week? A month?

Let’s suppose this hypothetical is true. Royal Media Services didn’t become a billionaire company overnight to afford paying off winnings in hundreds of thousands every day. The winners are paying themselves.

It’s like a penny auction. If 10,000 people paid only Sh1 every minute into a kitty, the first minute already raised enough to pay the winner of Sh100,000 in a 30-minute show.

That leaves a ton of money on the table for the taxman, which pockets a whooping 35 per cent, last time we checked the law, and the balance goes to the radio station’s bank account.

Is anyone surprised, then, that other radio channels have hitched onto the bandwagon? Betting is now all over the radio.

Well, what’s wrong with that? Nothing, really. If you can secure a license from the Betting Control and Licensing Board – good luck with that – you’re in lawful business.

The point is, should radio, the most powerful media outlet out here, be in the betting business, an emerging scapegoat for alarming rot among gullible Kenyans? Is it moral for media to perpetuate a perceived rot in society?

Well, good thing media is not church. Morality is found in the church corridors. Media concerns itself with ethics. The two, morals and ethics, are different animals.

At the minimum, ethics demands that media demonstrate transparency with citizens. Tell the audience what’s going on behind the scenes, how all this money is raised – and where it’s going. Disclosure is required, that the Sh100 or Sh1 you send to a Paybill number is not an investment. It’s betting.

After this disclosure, the audience then makes informed decisions. They know what they’re getting into. They know they’re playing potea-pata. You’ve told them. Explicitly.

Now, you’ll hear journalism and communication scholars yelling, their voices hoarse: why can’t radio just focus on its core business, content, and treat betting like the plague! (Sorry, scholars don’t yell; they debate.)

And reporters and editors on the first and second floors of the station, those who came through the door armed with a journalism diploma and a smudge of good conscience, will applaud.

The problem is the charlatans on the fifth floor, those who went to business school. Their mandate is to find money to pay everyone. Content quality versus sustainability. And profitability. Because this is not a charity. It’s a business.

Still, is betting on radio an innovative way to raise operating capital? Or is it a clever avenue for super profits, soiling journalism?

Let’s debate this thing, shall we?