Munyakazi wins Rwf156m in World Cup betting

RUBAVU-BASED businessman Jean Claude Gatoya Munyakazi became an instant millionaire after hitting a Sports4Africa jackpot of Rwf156m after placing a bet worth Rwf 600 on five winning Fifa World Cup matches. The 34-year-old cattle trader was handed a cheque of Rwf 158, 788,830 by Societe de Lotteries Pari Sportifs (LPS) Rwanda officials at the company outlet in Remera on Tuesday. Munyakazi told that he has been active in sports betting and his luck came when he predicted the exact scores for five matches at the ongoing World Cup tournament in Brazil. “I placed Rwf 600 on exact scores for five matches. All my predictions went as I had staked them. I am delighted because I never thought LPS Rwanda would pay me such an amount of money,” Munyakazi told this Paper. “This money is going to change my life. I am also planning to help my neighbours and vulnerable groups from my community to benefit from my success before I inject the rest of the money in my business,” he added. After a thorough internal investigation, Munyakazi’s ticket was deemed perfectly valid. The LPS Regional Director Jean Pierre Murama termed this success as a historical moment in Rwanda. “We have generated millions in governmental taxes and have given millions to players since we began, but Munyakazi’s case has amazed us,” Murama said during the handover of the cheque. LPS Rwanda through its sports for Africa product is a licensed and certified sports betting organisation that launched its services in Rwanda in January 2012. Sports4africa offers online and land based fixed odds betting through an official license in Rwanda and other African countries such as Gabon, Zambia, Burundi, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. The company pays out millions of francs to players across Rwanda who place bets on football, basketball, tennis and international events like World Cup and the European leagues.