Street Power

What is Street Power?

Botswana’s existing gambling framework sets the legal gambling age at 21. The amendment bill would align that threshold with the country’s general age of majority, which is 18.

Supporters of the change argued that people aged 18 to 20 are already treated as adults in many areas of civic and economic life, and that retaining a separate gambling threshold of 21 could push some towards unlicensed sites.

During the committee stage debate, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Major General Pius Mokgware warned parliament against adopting rules that could not be enforced in practice.

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“That combination of proven profitability, established market share and continuity of management materially reduces the execution risk you would normally associate with re-entering a consumer-facing business.”

But, as Robinson warns, the opportunity to enter Africa doesn’t come without challenges.

“It’s profitable, it’s growing and it was for sale from a distressed vendor,” he says. “That combination rarely appears in regulated Europe, where scaling a B2C brand means paying up for customers against Flutter and Entain on thin margins.

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One concern is the measure might force clubs to host matches outside the city to maintain their advertising agreements.

Stakeholders have yet to determine their response to the bills, with educational campaigns and collective actions on the agenda. Coordination with political leaders in the city of São Paulo is also under way.

Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos, president of the São Paulo Football Federation, expressed concern about the bill, saying: “If the city’s clubs lose this revenue, it will create a disparity that extends to the pitch.”