Series of social media posts such as this by a sports presenter known on Facebook as Paa Kwesi Darlington and this by another user by name Aboagye Gideon claim that online betting company, Betway, made 10 times more of its donation to the National COVID-19 Trust Fund in a day following the return of the German football league.
The posts suggested that the donation boosted the company’s image to enjoy high patronage on the first day of the return of the football league.
The claim has also been circulating on WhatsApp.
“BREAKING NEWS: BETWAY has just announced they have gotten 10 times the money they donated to government to fight Coronavirus just after 90 mins of the Bundesliga games,” the post read.
Fact-checkghana.com looked into this and found it to be completely false.
Explanation: As part of efforts to mobilize resources to help the government mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on Ghanaians, President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the establishment of a National COVID-19 Trust Fund and later inaugurated its Board of Trustees to receive and mange donations from private entities and individuals.
As at May 12, 2020, the fund had mobilized GH¢ 44.9 million.
On April 16, 2020, online betting company, Betway, donated GH¢150,000 to the fund at an Information Ministry presser. At the time, almost all football activities had been halted due to COVID-19 restrictions, consequently football betting and its associated businesses.
However, on May 16, 2020 the Bundesliga returned, sparking great interest among betters.
To verify the claim that the COVID-19 donation and the enthusiasm about the return of the league caused 10 times increase in GH¢150,000 donation as revenue for the Betway, to which an announcement was made, we combed through the company’s Facebook page for any related posts since 16th May, 2020.
We found nothing to suggest the company made such an announcement. We also checked the company’s website where all formal communications are also shared and saw no such information.
The last publication was the GH¢150,000 donation to the COVID-19 Trust Fund.
Based on the suspicion that the viral posts were false, fact-checkghana.com decided to run further checks to ascertain the source of the post.
Using the who tweeted first tool, we realized that the same post had also been circulating on Zambia, however, the post stated that Betway had donated money to “W.H.O. to fight Coronavirus.”
The claim is therefore completely false.
