Dedza Dynamos and Premier Bet: The marriage on the rocks

Things might have fallen apart between Dedza Dynamos and Premier Bet. The two were set to renew their sponsorship vows this year, yet the ink remains stubbornly inside the pen, refusing to find paper. The partnership now hangs by a thread, the fabric of their deal appearing torn in the wind.

For now, the team still parades under the name Premier Bet Dedza Dynamos, still adorned in jerseys bearing the company’s proud insignia. But the one-year sponsorship has run its course. Administration officer Guston Kamkosi Banda confirmed as much.

“Our partnership with Premier Bet was for one year with an option to extend. We have been involving them in discussions, but for now we are just fingers crossed, waiting for a signal,” he said.

MORE NEWS FROM WAMPIRA

That signal never came. And with it come the burning questions: Is Dedza Dynamos advertising Premier Bet for free? Why do they still wear the company’s brand when no formal agreement binds them? And the timeless riddle — who is wrong and who is right?

It had all begun in harmony. Premier Bet had injected K100 million into the marriage signed at its Limbe headquarters on April 30, 2024. In return, the company earned naming rights and kit branding, while pledging to improve player welfare.

The deal promised K100,000 to each Player of the Month, K500,000 for Player of the Season, another K500,000 for the Fan’s Player of the Season, and K200,000 to the Supporter of the Year.

The 2024 TNM Super League ended with Dedza Dynamos finishing on 36 points, scoring 33 and conceding 32 in a season of seven wins, 15 draws, and eight defeats.

Then came the 2025/26 opener, a 4-1 away thrashing of CRECK Sporting Club. The performance, they hoped, would warm Premier Bet’s heart into an extension. But hope became a waiting game.

Officials were later summoned to Blantyre for talks. Yet, to this day, nothing has materialised. Survival since then has been on the shoulders of the club’s patron, Lewis Yumbe Msukwa. He confirmed to this publication that he has covered all operational needs in the first round, ensuring players and staff remain fully paid.

Banda admits the club is in a puzzle.

“We are still using jerseys with Premier Bet logos because they have not come clear. We submitted reports and requested sponsorship to the tune of K130 million,” he said.

When contacted, Premier Bet Community Manager Hamza Mgaye offered little.

“I cannot say anything regarding that now. If we had meetings, then Dedza Dynamos knows what we told them. If something comes out, we will contact the team and announce it,” he stated.

Behind the curtain, however, a different picture emerges. Premier Bet’s leadership changed between the 2024 and 2025/26 seasons. The new bosses, upon reviewing the reports, were unimpressed.

One glaring shortfall — the K100,000 Player of the Month prize was only awarded once, to Promise Kamwendo in June 2024, presented in July at Mpira Stadium. Another — a clause requiring a monthly documentary on the winning player, supported by K15 million for media equipment including cameras, was left unmet. No equipment was bought. No episodes produced.

This was despite Premier Bet’s vision of pushing the content to SuperSport and leveraging its partnership with AC Milan to give Dedza’s players international exposure.

Banda concedes there were failures but they hoped to do better if an extension is agreed upon.

“Some things were not made clear between the parties. That made us fall short on the conditions we were supposed to fulfill. We accepted our shortfalls and hoped for better this time,” he said.

But the odds are grim. Sources close to the matter say the betting giant bluntly told Dedza they were not convinced by the use of funds.

The club has already stripped Premier Bet’s branding from its bus and is bracing for life after the deal. Officials will meet during the first-round break to explore new sponsorship doors.

Financial cracks are already showing. For their final first-round match, the team endured a gruelling trip to Rumphi by a Quantum minibus, only to fall 3-1 to Moyale Barracks on August 9.

The team’s patron explained that the Quantum was hired from a Dedza-based businessman named Wyson, as the team bus was in Lilongwe undergoing servicing. The service provider charged K1.6 million, while the total budget for the trip to Rumphi was over K2 million.

With the club surviving on the pockets of a single individual, meeting all expenses in one swoop was beyond reach. Thus, they resorted to hiring alternative transport for the journey north.

For a team once dressed in the golden light of corporate backing, the future now feels like a long road, dusty and uncertain. The financial crisis is/might be one of the reasons the team is struggling on field. They are slumped to the bottom three of the table halfway through the season.