Online gaming and e-sport culture gains momentum in Kenya.

It's eight o'clock in the morning in East Africa, and a board meeting is underway just a few metres from the Wilson Airport, about six kilometres southwest of Nairobi's central business district.

Anthony Okeyo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the social gaming company Rubik's Digital, six board members and seven staff members sit around the table. They are all techies.

'It's a meeting of equals,' says Okeyo, an electrical and electronic engineering graduate of the University of Nairobi. 'At Rubik's, we see ourselves as pioneers in a new realm - e-sports.'

Rubik's Digital has quickly proven itself as a gaming innovator that nurtures young software developers to create compelling content for e-sports.

'In essence, we purposely design mobile-based video games to entertain, educate and inform our target audience, particularly the youth,' Okeyo explains.

Connecting more Africans through mobile phone

According to industry reports, about 28 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is connected to the Internet, including 186 million who play video games.

With 98 million new mobile Internet subscribers expected by 2025, the region represents a very promising market for the gaming industry, especially in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

But what kind of market?

Unprecedented large-scale gambling across Kenya in 2019 got Okeyo thinking. 'The government had a problem with gambling,' he thought. 'Sports betting or gambling, as some called it, was drawing in thousands of youths who spent all their time and money in the activity.'

Kenyans were concerned.

In a study of sub-Saharan gambling online, scholars from Ghana, Malawi and elsewhere found that gaming applications often centered on European sports, with European companies supplying the technology and Africans promoting it locally.

'There needed to be an alternative that was better, safer - a counter-narrative,' Okeyo recalls, describing the inspiration for Rubik's Digital.

Changing the narrative

People like what they can relate to, what resonates with their way of life. It's important to understand the context in which you are setting up an e-gaming firm.

In the gaming industry, differentiation matters.

'From what I've seen and learned, local gamers enjoy local content. People like what they can relate to, what resonates with their way of life,' says Okeyo. 'It's important to understand the context in which you are setting up an e-gaming firm.'

Okeyo sees culture as an...