The $3 Gamble: How ‘Baba Ijebu’ Built a Multi-Million Dollar Empire on Trust and Tenacity

From just £3 to a multi-million dollar empire, this is the unbelievable story of Adebukuola Adebutu Kessington, known to millions as Baba Ijebu.

In a Nigerian market where others failed and folded, he thrived. Despite initial ridicule, government crackdowns, and the moral stigma of gambling, he built a household name that profoundly reshaped how Nigerians play, dream, and chase fortune. But how did one man make such a colossal fortune from the country’s controversial gambling industry? His journey is a masterclass in vision, strategy, and, above all, integrity.

The Road Not Taken: Choosing the Labour Market

Born on October 24, 1935, in Iperu-Remo, Ogun State, Adebutu came from a family of entrepreneurs. After completing his secondary education at Remo Secondary School in 1955—where he topped his class—a pivotal moment arrived. He made the unconventional decision to turn down a scholarship to the prominent Iwo Baptist College. He didn’t want to be a teacher; he wanted to enter the labour market immediately.

In an era when the country had a low number of literate citizens, an O-level certificate opened doors to professional jobs. This decision landed Adebutu his first job at Cable and Wireless Limited. Later, he joined Claffin Chemical Limited, a pharmaceutical company, starting as a salesman. He worked his way up to sales manager and eventually regional overseer.

Despite the high-profile position, Adebutu found himself struggling financially. The turning point came when he read a book by an author named Meron. One line forever changed his perspective: it stressed that every employee must one day leave their job, either through resignation or termination, emphasizing the long-lasting value of a self-owned enterprise. Inspired, he set out to find a business he could establish.

From Salesman to Pool Proprietor: The £3 Launch

The pharmaceutical industry, where he had significant experience, was too capital-intensive for his meager, debt-ridden salary. Adebutu was forced to look for a business that required little to no capital. His pragmatic search led him to the pool betting business.

Popular at the time, pool betting was a gambling circle where players staked against each other on the outcome of an event. Pool owners merely acted as supervisors over the bettors, meaning the business required little start-up funds.

In 1963, Adebutu resigned from Claffin Chemical Limited to establish his first pool shop: Face to Face Million Dollar Pools Limited. The initial setup was incredibly simple: a table, a biro, a piece of paper, and a shop at No. 8 Beale Street, Alacara, Lagos, which he rented for just £3. Crucially, his brother was a well-known landlord in the area, which instantly provided a layer of community trust that attracted the first customers.

The Power of Integrity

The success of the pool business relied heavily on honesty. Adebutu understood this and built his foundational success on the principle of uncompromising integrity. Unlike most pool owners notoriously known for tampering with funds, he ensured all business dealings were transparent. This quickly turned his reputation for honesty into a valuable competitive advantage in an unregulated industry.

As trustworthiness brought in more customers, he sought to scale. With insufficient capital, he partnered with a friend, Chief Solomon Adebayo. This partnership provided the necessary resources and expertise, enabling the opening of two additional outlets in less than a year.

Premier Lotto: Conquering the West

Over time, Adebutu’s small pool betting business slowly evolved into a modern lotto enterprise. The full corporate transformation was formalized in 2001 with the incorporation of Premier Lotto Limited. This move shifted the business from informal pool operation to a fully regulated corporate entity, allowing players to bet directly against the company rather than against each other.

To conquer this new, more sophisticated market, Kessington Adebutu devised a brilliant plan. Instead of overstretching across Nigeria, he focused on dominating the Western region.

He established a colossal physical network of over 200 principal agents, who in turn supervised more than 16,000 sub-agents and sales representatives. From Lagos to Ibadan, Premier Lotto outlets sprawled everywhere. To fuel this expansion, Adebutu offered his agents a generous 25% commission on whatever was made, effectively bringing gambling to the doorstep of millions and embedding it as street culture.

The physical, grand-level agent network was the most critical component of Premier Lotto’s success. Running a fixed-odds model, the company bought the total risk but allowed for a consistent payout ratio of about 62% to 63%. This predictable margin, coupled with a high volume of small-stake bets, became the engine for generating billions.

Digitisation and the Birth of ‘Baba Ijebu’

When increased prediction skills started leading to higher losses for the company, Adebutu remained stubborn and restrategised. Rather than scale back, he went all in. In 2009, he partnered with Editec SA, a French Lotto service company, to digitize Premier Lotto’s systems and offer an online betting platform. This development allowed the company to utilize the power of computers for sophisticated risk management and business protection.

With the introduction of online service, Premier Lotto truly took the nation by storm. Adebutu, a native of Ijebu land, became affectionately known as Baba Ijebu (Father of Ijebu). This community-rooted name resonated deeply with the masses and became far more recognizable than the corporate brand itself.

Testing the Foundation: Legal Challenges and Diversification

The rising dominance of Baba Ijebu did not go unchallenged. In the late 2010s, Premier Lotto faced accusations of tax fraud, triggered by a petition from the owner of a rival company, Western Lotto. Adebutu’s son, Segun Adebutu, represented the company during the questioning in January 2020. Ultimately, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) dismissed the investigation, concluding that it found no corrupt practices—a powerful testament to Adebutu’s foundational principle of honesty.

This unwavering commitment to integrity was his self-proclaimed secret. Even in the early days when heavy winnings made it difficult to pay customers, Adebutu would secure bank loans to settle his debts, ensuring his reputation remained spotless.

Building Beyond the Wager

Adebutu never treated Premier Lotto as his final destination. From the beginning, he strategically reinvested gambling profits into a diversified portfolio. Together with his business partner, Chief Solomon Adebayo, he ventured into agriculture, manufacturing, asset management, and entertainment. This robust, multifaceted empire, which includes companies like Abico PLC and Kessington Pharmaceuticals, was a deliberate effort to ensure success was not solely dependent on the fragile gambling industry.

A Legacy of Philanthropy and Influence

Today, the multi-million dollar business empire has cemented Adebutu as one of Nigeria’s most influential men. His wealth and presence ring across the nation, famously leading to the marriage of his daughter to the son of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2017.

Approaching the age of 90, Adebutu has begun gracefully passing the baton to his son, Segun Adebutu, who now oversees a world-class energy conglomerate. Despite his high profile, he has never lost touch with the average Nigerian reality. Through the Kessington Adebutu Foundation, he has funded numerous community projects in health and education.

To many universities in the Southwest, he has donated state-of-the-art facilities, including e-libraries and radio stations. His commitment to education, despite never attending university himself, led the University of Lagos to grant him an honorary alumnus award.

Adebutu often recounts how he promised a friend he would become a millionaire before the friend returned from his studies in Europe. Decades later, Adebutu was counting his fortune in multiples of millions.

Today, Baba Ijebu is not just a popular brand name; it’s the label for an entire culture. Kessington Adebutu’s journey from a humble salesman to a lotto magnate is a blueprint for success—a testament to vision, strategic thinking, and the enduring power of building a brand on integrity.

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