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What is The Great Banker?
Botswana’s regulated betting market has expanded quickly following the Gambling Authority’s 2023 process to license bookmaker and totalisator operators, including online betting subject to regulatory approval.
In January 2024, before locally licensed online operators were active, the Authority said it had recorded about 510,000 monthly cases of Botswanans participating in illegal online gambling.
Sunbet Botswana launched its online sports-betting platform in February 2025 and reported a 4,700% increase in sign-ups during its first month. As this was an operator-reported figure, the company did not publicly disclose the comparison baseline or absolute number of registrations.
What is The Great Banker?
The AiA said this was the latest example of its objective of bringing industry stakeholders into “constructive dialogue” as Africa’s gambling market develops.
“Our aim is to create an environment in which regulators, operators and suppliers can engage constructively on the opportunities and challenges facing the industry across the continent,” Kesitilwe stated.
Collaboration was a key focus of the inaugural Africa Safer Gambling Week, which the AiA hosted last week.
What is The Great Banker?
In 2009, despite having relinquished any active role in the online gambling industry years earlier, I launched CalvinAyre.com due to my dissatisfaction with the news sites that then dominated discussion of the gaming sector. I found their coverage too deferential to the established giants of the day and too oblivious of the changes I saw looming on the horizon.
I didn’t invent online gambling, but I saw its potential early enough to help shape the industry in ways that allowed it to emerge from the shadows into the mainstream.
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