The Online Gaming Kenya Marketing Guide: Winning Ads in Uncertain Times

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This Kenya Online Gaming Marketing Guide was inspired by our advertisers willing to attract new players from this amazing country. Sports and Entertainment industries have boomed here in recent years. But you must act wisely, as Kenya is imposing more and more restrictions on all direct iGaming advertisements, including online promotions. It may be time to get a breakdown of the market specifics, audiences, and marketing strategies. Sure it is!

Kenya’s online gaming market overview

You can identify Kenya’s gaming market with a younger, tech-savvy audience that favors mobile games, sports, and entertainment. Kenya comes fourth when it comes to estimating gaming revenues in Africa.

Africa’s gaming market revenues (mobile games, eSports, console and PC)

Country	Revenue ($)	Main focus	Facts
Egypt	$368 million	Mobile, Console (or PC)	Leading market, rapid growth
Nigeria	$300 million	Mobile, eSports	Largest population, young gamers, huge potential for gaming market growth
South Africa	$278 million	Mobile, eSports	Great monetization, thriving eSports
Kenya	$46 million	Mobile	Technological hub, urban young gamers, local game developers

Kenya’s iGaming market

The online gaming (or iGaming) market has thrived for several years. Experts predicted gaming market revenue to hit $1.03BN by 2029, with the sports sector only achieving $152.28M (Statista). It’s also expected the number of gamers to soar up to 1.6 millions by 2029.

Kenyan online gaming audience: Profile

Kenya is a leader in e-infrastructure among other African countries. 40.8% of Kenya’s population has internet access (primarily via mobile devices), which lays a solid foundation for promoting gaming apps and offers.

Demographics
Young adults, predominantly males aged between 18 and 35, form the audience’s core for affiliates.

Mobile usage dominance
Even in 2019, 88% of players used mobile devices. Smartphone engagement has only increased since then, indicating a strong demand for mobile-friendly sites and ad creatives.

Playing frequency
Kenya’s audience stands out among other African countries, with over 80% of respondents involved in playing. As of GeoPoll, 37% of players get involved in online gaming (sports sites) approximately once a week. Over 28% of those surveyed invest in gaming activities once a month.

General preferences in online gaming
Players mainly get involved with supporting sporting activities but focus on European leagues. Live games are gaining popularity but not as much as in Asian countries.

Sports preferences
Kenyans prefer football, with the English Premier League, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, La Liga, and local Kenyan Premier League being the most popular. As for mobile gaming, users put eFootball first, proving their love for sports once again.

Growing interest in online gaming
Projections estimate some 402,000 sports fans and 85,000 online gaming platform users by 2029. However, predictions may not turn into real figures if BCLB continues to block iGaming ads, leaving only classic mobile games like trivia, puzzles, tile matches, and so on. First, it issued a 30-day ban on all iGaming promotions, next, BCLB founded a multi-agency team who will remaster guidelines for all iGaming companies.

Add tons of relevant traffic to your campaigns in Kenya. Check Traffic Chart’s volumes and recommended bids and start advertising outside of still competition and heavy regulations.

Gaming regulations in Kenya

Kenya welcomes mobile games and all playing activities not related to paid sports predictions, live dealing, or games of chance. Such activities are supposed to affect younger generations negatively.

The primary regulation institute for the iGaming vertical is the Betting Control and Licensing Board. BCLB sets the rules for obtaining licenses and controls how online gaming offers should be advertised.

The gaming industry in Kenya is becoming more and more regulated. Kenyan governments have made several attempts to introduce the iGaming Control Bill to enhance players’ protection. One of the latest advancements made by the Betting Control and Licensing Board is a 30-day ban on all forms of iGaming ads. New regulations prohibit entirely promotions on television, radio, and online platforms. This means that affiliates will need to find alternative ways to create engaging content in the future.

Still, Kenya is one of the most thriving online gaming countries in Africa. Sports, online video gaming, and sweepstakes are permitted in the country. Kenyans’ spending on mobile games has risen to Sh5.2B, while 30% of urban mobile gamers regularly make in-app purchases.

1. Licensing in iGaming

You don’t normally need to obtain a local license to promote mobile gaming apps like trivia, tile-matching, or console games, which are available after a subscription. The tightest restrictions are imposed on iGaming and offline gaming houses.

• Only operators approved by the Betting Control and Licensing Board can promote online gaming services via official marketing channels.
• License fee from $42,000 + $1.55M deposit for foreign operators
• Ads must include the age restriction, the license number, and the “authorized and regulated by the Betting Control and Licensing Board” caption.
• Mandatory business localization: 30% of the organizations must be owned by Kenyan citizens.

10+ Kenya online gaming marketing strategies

1. Mobile-first approach

• Prioritize mobile-friendly ad formats and landing pages.
• Make it easy to deposit money.
• Invest in mobile social traffic (primarily Android devices). Kenyans are very sociable and quickly get involved with content to have fun (publishers send millions of ad views from Facebook and other networks).

Expert advice: split campaign tests into mobile-first and desktop-first. You can start with mobile-only targeting and then scale with desktop traffic.

• When promoting paid carrier subscriptions, ensure you target the right mobile carrier. Normally, there’s a setting that allows checking all companies operating within a country.

2. CPM bidding over CPA payouts

• Prefer CPM pricing when your marketing goal is to boost player deposits or in-app purchases. It’s the safest way to test traffic and optimize it later.
• The CPA strategy will align better with the CPI conversion flow (cost-per-install) or other simple user actions like trials, signups, and opt-ins but not money deposits.

3. Cost-optimization strategies

• When buying CPM traffic, resort to the CPA Goal: set rules to unlink traffic sources that cost too much (eCPA) or return very few conversions.
• Reduce spending with the Smart CPM tool: it’s a second-price auction algorithm that decreases your payout so it’s enough to outrun the competitor coming after you.

4. Sports-centric content

• If you’re an affiliate, start with ads featuring popular sporting football events.
• Plan campaigns to align with major sporting events, but get ready beforehand: 2 weeks before the event is ok to test creatives and engage audiences into registration and making their first deposits.

5. Alternative ads are a winning factor

• Popunders are the No. 1 traffic source to market in Kenya and other countries in Africa.
• Social Bar and Interstitials add a vote of confidence to your strategy: they allow for unprecedented engagement with their OS-adapting designs and large visuals with immersive gaming experience. With Interstitials, you can easiliy highlight big welcome bonuses for new players or free credits right in the creative.

6. Localized and personalized content

• Develop content that blends with users’ preferences and interests (fun, freebies, bonuses, etc.)
• Use creatives that support immersive gaming experiences.
• Integrate local slang and common phrases sports fans use.
• Use the sports team’s colors, mascots, and other identity that doesn’t fall under copyright.
• You can use English, Kenyan English, and Swahili languages.
• Target time slots when users are active and ready to play. Time slots vary depending on your offer and the location. So, it’s better to put off this setting until you finish the test campaign.

Expert advice: Time range (or time slot) targeting is a helpful setting to minimize your spend in low-activity hours. It’s easily adjusted from your Adsterra account (remember about GMT adjustment). More about ad targeting settings.

7. Location targeting

• When you’re done with traffic tests and campaign optimization, try creating new campaigns targeting the most gaming-friendly cities, like West Pokot or Nakuru. 
• Refine targeting based on high-performing segments.

8. Programmatic advertising

• Automate media buying of vast traffic amounts with your DSP platform. For instance, you can apply as a DSP partner to get premium RTB traffic from publishers and trusted partner platforms. 

9. The power of SEO

• Optimize your site pages for searches from Kenya: Include search queries in local languages popular in this region; ensure you’re not only focusing on worldwide high-volume queries.
• Integrate LSI keywords.
• Focus on intent: adapt your content to Kenyan players willing to play and deposit, not just those who pursue educational goals.
• Boost brand organic reach. It’s a long-term strategy, but later on, your efforts will pay off when people start searching for “%brand%” bonuses,” “%brand% winnings,” “%brand% registration,” and so on.

Example:
People look for information: Gaming market stats in Kenya.
People look for platforms to play: Games with big bonuses Kenya.

Example 2:
People want to navigate to the best site: top gaming sites in Kenya.
People look for a specific brand: %brand% bonuses in March.

10. Affiliate marketing (for operators and landmark brands)

• Partner with Kenyan sports bloggers and influencers for affiliate promotions.
• Place offers in a reputable CPA network to ensure various sources of traffic driven by skilled affiliates.

11. Extended analytics and post-optimization

• Use your platform stats to regularly check campaigns’ health: impressions, CTR, clicks, etc.
• Apply conversion tracking even when buying CPM/CPC traffic.
• Export poor-performing placements to exclude them from campaigns (blacklisting strategies).
• Launch separate campaigns with increased payouts for best placements (whitelisting).
• Manage bids in your current campaign, increasing them for preferred placements (custom bidding).

Checklists for advertisers: traditional & online gaming ads in Kenya

Now, let’s digest some of the best practices of iGaming marketing in Kenya if your campaigns embrace various channels.

1. Major broadcasting channels like TV, radio, and outdoor

• Shift to promoting mobile games with in-game purchases; focus on gaming experiences.
• Prefer educational content or “how-to-win” tutorials, but avoid urging people to make deposits.
• Sponsor TV shows and series that your audience favors.
• Explore brand marketing: collaborate with celebs, use brand banners at major sporting events, but ensure you promote the brand or its non-iGaming activities.

General advice: avoid direct iGaming advertising but natively integrate educational content or force branded campaigns aimed at earning trust. Advertise mobile games if you produce them, focus on social games (those with in-app currency) instead of promoting iGaming platforms.

2. Online channels (ad messages and landing pages)

• Meta and Google ads accept mobile games, video & console games for promotion. To advertise games of chance or sports forecasts, earlier you had to get certified by Meta & Google. Now that iGaming ads are under restrictions, this is a questionable way.
• Prefer alternative traffic sources with a more holistic approach to ad verification. Remember to upload previews of your prelanders and landing pages to get campaign approval faster.

• Optimize all your landing pages, sites, prelanders, and signup pages for mobile screens.
• Use location targeting to display ads in the most preferable regions and cities.
• Use Swahili and English in ad copy to resonate with local audiences.
• Incorporate local cultural references and sports figures (while adhering to regulations).
• Carry out A/B tests of ad creatives and prelanders (use multiple creatives per test).
• Scale campaigns, add more ad formats, and refresh creatives. Highlight the winnings or add testimonials.
• Remove low-performing visuals but keep the balance of CTR: if you remove creatives with high CTR rates, your overall campaign scores may decrease.
• Adhere to Kenyan data protection laws when collecting user information.
• Implement secure data handling practices for all advertising platforms.
• Place the most popular methods to add money on the most visible parts of the site (e.g., PayPal, digital wallets, M-Pesa).
• Display your licenses and certificates for higher credibility.
• Ensure players can contact customer support quickly.
• Add social proofs to your landing pages or sites to increase conversion rates.

Challenges and considerations of the online gaming market in Kenya

1. Regulatory changes

• Stay informed about potential changes to BCLB regulations.
• Be prepared to adapt online gaming marketing strategies to new rules quickly.
• Seek alternative traffic sources with non-automated verification, allowing for a more tailored approach to your offers.
• Licensing: keep track of your licenses’ expiration dates and ensure you have all necessary documents.

2. Competition

• Get ready to compete: the Kenyan online gaming market is becoming increasingly saturated with operators.
• Differentiate through unique online promotions and visuals that fit mobile screens.
• Highlight winnings and provide guaranteed bonuses. Avoid setting complex conditions to get a bonus.
• Invest in brand awareness in the country: tons of CPM traffic from bloggers and social media publishers are available outside major ad networks.

3. Payment methods

• Keep track of the latest trends in online payment methods and integrate those that Kenyan players favor. For instance, M-Pesa has become a true market driver in Kenya’s online gaming market, ensuring fast and secure transactions via mobiles. This service is operated by Vodacom and Safaricom operators. E-wallets are gaining popularity, as well.
• Ensure seamless integration of payment systems on landing pages and sites. Be attentive to mobile users who need a fast way to add money from smartphones.

4. Cultural specifics

• Be mindful of cultural patterns and avoid potentially offensive content.
• Include inspiring headings, offer real bonuses, and free spins.
• Request for advice from local experts to ensure cultural appropriateness in the country.
• Ask your account manager (if buying traffic via an ad network) about what’s trending among audiences in Kenya.

5. Measures against ad fatigue

• Regularly refresh ad creatives to combat ad fatigue among target audiences.
• Utilize at least 10–15 creatives per test. Try various techniques: offer bonuses, win-win deals, and other valuable freebies.
• Experiment with prelanders (for Popunder ads) and highly visible formats like Interstitials and In-Page Push.

6. Mobile network limitations

• Optimize landing pages for slower mobile networks to ensure wide reach.
• Consider lightweight lead forms for faster registration.

7. Social responsibility

• Balance profit-driven advertising with social responsibility messaging.
• Develop CSR initiatives to improve brand perception in the Kenyan market.

iGaming in Kenya: FAQs

Summing up:

We’re all witnessing a boom in online gaming boom in Kenya, and this trend will only get bigger. Though regulations are getting stricter, the future for operators, providers, and affiliates remains very promising if they revise their offer profiles. Social games, eSports, or games with in-app purchases will continue developing, embracing young audiences.

Loyal players are still there, waiting for those who tailor their ads and offer great experiences!