The most important league in Kenya, the Kenyan Premier League, is a must for many football bettors. Once you find the best betting sites based on detailed bookmaker reviews, you’ll want to use them to place bets on this league.
To make successful wagers, you’ll need to learn everything you can about the top Kenyan football league, the best teams and players in it, and of course, the most valuable bets you can place on it.
You also need to learn more about the bookmaker you are dealing with, for example Betika is one of the most popular bookies in Kenya. You can find more info about how to bet on Betika to use your budget in the most effective way. We’ll give you all of that in this piece, so keep reading to gain the leading predictions and insights that will help you win more.
Kenyan Premier League Explained
The Kenyan Premier League (KPL) is officially called the FKF Premier League, but also the BetKing Premier League (BPL) due to current sponsorships. It’s the top-tier league in the entire football pyramid system of the country and is now controlled by the Football Kenya Federation.
The league's inaugural season occurred a long time ago, in 1963. Since then, the league has changed, but it’s been mostly the same since the late 1990s. That’s also when the league started to improve, as it didn’t have enough funds for teams to better themselves before it started getting major sponsorships and partners.
The KPL consists of 18 football clubs from Kenya, and the best one is Gor Mahia with its 19 titles, many of which were won after 2013.
FKF Premier League Preview
The league usually lasts from February to November, but it recently switched to August-May, which is in line with European countries and their league systems.
The 18 teams in the KPL compete in a double round-robin system, meaning each team plays against every other team twice, once home and once away. This results in 34 matches per team. All teams are ranked using the typical system with 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. They are first ranked by points, then by goal difference, and then by goals scored.
When all matches are done, the KPL champion for the season is the club with the highest rank in the overall table. What’s more, the champion team gets to qualify for the preliminary round of the CAF Champions League — the most significant annual tournament for the continent of Africa and one of the most prominent football championships in the world.
The two lowest-ranked teams get relegated to the National Super League, the second league in the Kenyan football league pyramid. The two best teams from that league get promoted to the KPL to fill in the empty spots.
Interestingly, the 16th-ranked team, i.e. the team right above the two that get relegated, has to play a game against the third-best team from the National Super League. That way, another team has to prove its worth to remain in the league while another team from the lower league gets the chance to join the biggest Kenyan competition.
Top Teams and Players in the KPL
The teams with the most champion titles won are:
Gor Mahia — 19 wins (last in 2019-20)
A.F.C. Leopards — 12 wins (last in 1998)
Tusker — 12 wins (last in 2020-21)
Ulinzi Stars — 4 wins (last in 2010)
Luo Union — 2 wins (last in 1975)
Oserian — 2 wins (last in 2002)
Nakuru AllStars, Feisal, Utalii, Sony Sugar, Mathare United, and Sofapaka all with one win each
The top scorers in the last two seasons are Clifton Miheso, Felix Oluoch, Erick Kapaito, Elvis Rupia, Lawrence Juma, William Wadri, Derrick Otanga, and Henry Meja.
Overall, the best attacking teams are Kakamega Homeboyz, Kariobangi Sharks, Posta Rangers, and Nairobi City Stars, while the worst attacking teams are Ulinzi Stars, Vihiga, and Mathare United.
The best defending teams are Tusker, KCB, and Ulinzi Stars, while the worst defending teams are Mathare United, Wazito, and Vihiga.
KPL Betting Markets You Need to Use
Most matches have a lower number of goals per match in the KPL. For instance, only six teams have an average of 1.25 goals per game — Bandari, A.F.C. Leopards, Kakamega Homeboyz, Tusker, and Kariobangi Sharks.
Overall, only 1.18 goals are scored on average in home matches and 1.04 in away matches. In total, 2.5 goals per match happen in 42% of games, and only 18% of matches have more than 3.5 goals. So it’s best to use lower under or over bets.
You could even bet on exact scores, as 1-0 is a typical result, so it’s also typically good to bet on home teams to win.
If you want to bet on season winners, it’s good to go for either Gor Mahia or Tusker, as they have won practically all of the championships since 2011, with most wins belonging to Gor Mahia.
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