How to read the GRA list of licensed bookmakers, column by column

The Gambling Regulatory Authority publishes one list of licensed gambling companies, and every bookmaker check in Kenya comes back to it. It is a plain table with no search box and no filters, so knowing what each column holds saves time. This site mirrors it on the licensed bookmakers page, and where the two differ the regulator's own page prevails.

Where the list is and what the page shows

The list sits at gra.go.ke/licensed-operators. The heading above it reads "Licensed Gaming Companies for the Trading Period 2025/26", and under the heading comes a single table with no further pages.

The page prints no date. The website's own content record shows a last modification on 19 March 2026, which is the best available guide to the age of the rows.

The table has 187 rows, numbered from 1 to 188. Number 119 is skipped, so the last number on the page is one higher than the real count.

The eight columns, one by one

The header row reads No., Operators Name, Trading Name, BK, PG, PL, STATUS and DOMAINS. The table below uses row 1, copied as published, to show what each column holds.

Treat the No. column as a page position only. When you write down or quote a row, use the BK number and the company name, which identify the licensee. The three licence columns are explained in what a BK licence is and what the number means.

What Nil means

Nil in a licence column means the list shows no number of that kind for the company. The page gives it no other meaning, so do not read it as a suspension or a refusal.

No row is Nil in all three licence columns, so every company on the list holds at least one numbered licence. For a sports betting check the BK column is the one that matters: a row with Nil there shows no bookmaker licence, whatever the brand name suggests.

A Nil under DOMAINS works differently. It tells you the company is listed but leaves open which website, if any, it runs.

Renewal and New in the STATUS column

The STATUS column holds only two words. Renewal appears on 170 rows and New on 17.

The page does not define either word. The plain reading is that Renewal marks a licence carried over into the 2025/26 trading period and New a licence granted for the first time in it, yet nothing on the page confirms this, and neither word says the licence is in force today.

Thirteen of the 17 New rows carry a BK number. The remaining four hold only PG or PL numbers.

Reading the DOMAINS column

Each row lists one web address at most, copied exactly as typed. All but two of the 125 addresses begin with www, a few include https:// or end in a slash, and the endings used are .ke, .com and .bet.

Regulation 11(2)(g) of the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations, 2026 requires an applicant for an online gambling licence to name its proposed platform and domain name. That makes the domain the detail to match most carefully, letter by letter against your browser's address bar rather than against a link you were sent.

Spellings on the list are not always tidy. Row 48, for example, pairs the trading name Lakibets with the domain www.hakibets.com, and the page does not say which spelling is intended.

Quirks to allow for

Five BK numbers appear on two rows each. Number 0001368, for instance, sits on row 43 under Kigblo Investments Limited and on row 102 under Kiglob Investments Limited, both trading as Wakabet.

Trading names repeat too. Wakabet appears on three rows and Flamingo Casino on two, each time under a different company name.

Three BK cells, on rows 49, 57 and 86, begin with a stray apostrophe before the digits. When a row looks doubtful, the list alone cannot settle it, and the toll-free line on the regulator's website, 0800-723-770, is where to ask.

The trading period and how current the list is

The heading ties the list to the 2025/26 trading period without giving a start or end date for it. Nothing on the page shows when an individual licence was issued.

The Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations, 2026 were made on 29 June 2026 and gazetted on 30 June 2026, months after the list was last edited. Under regulation 30, licences granted under the repealed Act stayed in force for sixty days from that publication, and their holders had to apply for the appropriate new licence inside the same period.

The Fourth Schedule to those Regulations sets one year for an online gambling licence. A list last changed in March 2026 cannot include any licence granted under the 2026 Regulations.

What the list does not record

Section 39(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 requires the Authority to keep a register of licences. For every licence it must record, among other details, the county or counties it covers, its expiry date and any revocation or suspension.

The published table shows none of those three items. Section 39(2) opens the full register to the public at reasonable times on payment of a prescribed fee, which makes that register, not the web page, the formal record.

Suspensions are announced elsewhere. Section 34(3) requires the Authority to tell the public about a suspension through a Gazette notice and two newspapers of nationwide circulation or other national media, and what happens to your money when a betting site closes covers the consequences for account holders.

The list also says nothing about payment methods, paybill numbers or apps, a gap covered in what the licence list does not show about M-Pesa. To apply all of this to a real site, follow the steps to check if a betting site is licensed.