Football Index - fortunately never tempted

I probably first noticed Football Index about 6 months ago when I became aware of a podcast called, funnily enough, Football Index Podcast. I listened to one episode on my daily walk but was not that impressed.

From what I could gather you bought "shares" in footballers and then got "dividends" based on that footballer's performance (goals, shots, tackles etc) and - this seemed a bit bizarre - mentions in the media. It appeared you "owned" a share for 3 years (not sure what happened then), the share could go up and down in value and you could sell it. The trick to winning big was to buy a "share" in a young player who then burst on the scene with some eye-catching performances and went up in value - although the potential for insider trading with this is all too obvious. Alternatively pick a controversial player with wayward tendencies and you might gain from the media mentions. Eric Cantana would have paid a good dividend!

The Football Index (FI) people tried to present their product as a stock market but in reality it was a gambling site - unlike on the stock exchange you did not actually own the shares, hence the use of inverted commas when trying to explain my understanding of how it worked.

I have no idea if the footballers got any payment for being used by FI in this way - they certainly should have done. FI themselves sponsored Notts Forest and QPR.

During lockdown I did have a bit of fun doing some amateur share trading on eToro (where you do really own the shares) but fortunately was never seriously tempted by FI. They charged 2% commission on each trade but I could not see how in the end the company could make a profit. Better judges than me have suggested it had a whiff of a Ponzi scheme about it, and the company has now gone into administration.

The Gambling Commission must have some serious questions to answer over this. They are the regulators (because FI was a betting site and not a stock exchange) but seem to have not raised any concerns. Too busy getting 17 year olds to test purchase hard pressed on course bookies, or campaigning to bring in affordability checks if you lose more than £100 a month I guess.

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