Nico United

Selebi-Phikwe was built for the copper and nickel of the BCL Mine, and for decades the mine built the town's football club as well.

Founded in 1969, Nico United reached its high point in the mid-1980s, taking the FA Challenge Cup in 1986, beating Gaborone United in the final, and again in 1987. Two runner-up finishes in the Botswana Premier League followed, in 1990 and again in 2012–13, when Mochudi Centre Chiefs denied them the title. Gift Moyo, capped eight times for Botswana, was the club's central figure through the following years, a fixture at Selebi-Phikwe Stadium from 2010 to 2017.

That 2017 date marks the break. The BCL Mine closed in 2015, and the sponsorship that had underwritten the club for a generation went with it. Nico United, known to their supporters as Majombolo, were relegated to the First Division North as the financial strain took hold, and returned to the Premier League in 2022.

Selebi-Phikwe Stadium, also called Sam Sono Stadium, holds 9,000, and it is there that Nico United still meet FC Satmos, the club founded in the town in 1996 as Copper Chiefs. Two names drawn from the same mining ground, still playing out.