pawaTech raises revenue 36% to $245.7M in 2025 and pays $120.1M in dividends

pawaTech Group, the UK-registered company that owns the technology behind the betPawa brand, reported revenue of $245.7 million in 2025, up 36% versus 2024, and profit after tax of $115.3 million. The group paid $120.1 million in dividends in 2025, compared with $19 million in 2024; it also declared an interim dividend of $62 million after the year end.

Key financial results

The 2025 financial statements show operating profit rose to $158.2 million from $135.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased to $196 million from $146.7 million. Profit after tax, however, barely moved to $115.3 million from $111.1 million because the group's tax charge rose to $43.9 million from $24.2 million.

Administrative expenses almost doubled, reaching $101 million, and technology and IT spend was $27.5 million. Average headcount rose to 322 employees from 237. The central development team works in Tallinn, Estonia, where a subsidiary holds the platform intellectual property.

Product and market growth

pawaTech attributes the revenue increase to both existing markets and new products, including casino games, which add to the brand's sports-betting offer. betPawa launched in Uganda in 2014, expanded to Kenya in 2015, to Nigeria and Zambia in 2017, and to Ghana and Tanzania in 2018; the brand now operates in 17 markets.

"When we started in 2014, desktop was irrelevant, and we said, 'We're going straight to mobile'," said Kresten Buch, founder and chief executive of pawaTech.

Business model and operators

pawaTech licences the betPawa brand to operators and earns royalties, platform fees and support fees tied to those operators' earnings. Choplife Gaming, chaired by Nigerian musician Mr Eazi, operates betPawa in eight of the 17 markets: Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Benin, Liberia and Mali.

Choplife acquired the Nigeria rights in January 2025 under a four-year agreement with pawaTech based on an initial licence fee. betPawa began operating in Liberia under Choplife's licence in January 2026, and the regulator PMU Mali approved its launch in Mali in May 2026.

In Rwanda, where Choplife operates, the tax on gross gaming revenue rose to 40% from the prior 13%. In September 2025 Mr Eazi reported on X that Choplife had paid 17 000 000 000 Rwandan francs, approximately $11.7 million at the time, in taxes in Rwanda since 2022.

pawaTech also provides loans to its operators for working capital; those loans totalled $17.1 million at the end of 2025, and the group recorded an impairment provision of $6.17 million against them during the year.

Currency, tax and restructuring risks

Foreign-exchange losses rose to $23.1 million from $4.3 million. Group operators collect in Kenyan shillings, Ugandan shillings, naira, Zambian kwacha, cedi, Tanzanian shillings, Central African CFA francs and Congolese francs; most of pawaTech's costs are paid in euros and pounds sterling.

The accounts also report that HM Revenue and Customs is in discussions with the group about certain historic UK tax filings; the outcome cannot yet be estimated. The group is changing its structure: in January 2026 two subsidiaries were incorporated in Dubai and some Rwandan units are being wound up.

Liquidity, valuation and shareholder control

At the end of 2025 the group held $75.2 million in cash and had net assets of $125.2 million. In February 2026 pawaTech issued new shares at £212.15 each, a valuation that placed the company's total value at roughly £374 million (about $494 million). No individual, including Buch, has effective control of the group. Mr Eazi has been an investor in betPawa since 2017.

Operational implications

In the eight markets run by Choplife, betPawa users deposit and withdraw exclusively via mobile money. The accounts show the financial scale behind the brand: pawaTech's fees are linked to operator profitability and casino games have been added to growth alongside sports betting.

"Choplife had paid 17 billion Rwandan francs, or about $11.7 million at the time, in taxes in Rwanda since 2022," said Mr Eazi in his September 2025 statement.