Kenyan soccer clubs are belatedly embracing technology to market their products and reach their fans.

At least five of the 16 Kenyan Premier League clubs have put up websites.

Tusker FC, the third most successful club in the country after Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, is in the process of setting up its website.

The clubs say they hope the websites will open up new avenues to make money and attract investors.

Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards, Sofapaka and Ulinzi Stars have the most active websites, which have become sources of information.

“We want even the media houses to be getting information from club websites,” said George Bwana, the secretary general of Gor Mahia.
“But I do believe having websites is just the first step towards fully professionalising the clubs,” Bwana added.

According to Boni Gor who helped set up the Gor Mahia website, Kenyan clubs do not understand the great potential the Internet has for generating revenue.

“Through websites, clubs can sell their merchandise online and do ticketing. They can also attract adverts which in turn bring in revenue,” said Boni.

Gor Mahia is already streaming its matches live online; they are the first club to do that in the country.

Football fans can now get minute by minute updates wherever they are.

Kevin Mbuya, who handles the livestream, said it only needs a good communications device to process the matches live online.

“We provide fans, who are not able to make it to the stadium or watch the game on television, with minute by minute information on the match. This they can receive via their phones,” he said.

At the moment, none of the clubs has been able to attract advertisers to its website.

This is attributed to poor marketing skills.

Apart from the clubs’ sponsors, who get space on the website free of charge, corporates are yet to get on board.

AFC Leopards officials say they are setting up a sales and marketing department to source advertisements. Their website is afcleopards.net.

“We have taken that first step of having the website, now what needs to be done is having a strong marketing team to get adverts,” said Richard Ekhalie of AFC Leopards.

The clubs are yet to embrace other forms of communicating to their fans like SMS alerts.

By liaising with mobile phone providers, they can get short codes to update their fans on the happenings at the club, and also on matches played. Through this they could earn income from subscribers who receive the message alerts.

In Europe, clubs use the SMS alert to send breaking news and match updates and other information to fans.

Bwana says this is the direction to go for Kenyan football.