Legislation

UK – Gambling Commission suspends licence of Football Index

By Phil - 15 March 2021

Betting fans are believed to have lost £90m after BetIndex, owners of Football Index, moved into administration.

The betting company immediately had its operating licence suspended by the UK Gambling Commission. Football Index, which describes itself as ‘the football stock market,’ said that ‘after a difficult and challenging week’ the decision had been made ‘to suspend the platform.’

The company said: “The Board of BetIndex Limited has consulted with external legal and financial advisors, and the UK and Jersey Gambling Commissions. The decision has been made to suspend the platform.The dividend restructure announced on Friday was a necessary step in a business recovery plan to seek the long-term sustainability of the platform. However, it is clear that this has not been well received and we need to find a more agreeable way forward.

“We are pursuing a restructuring arrangement to be agreed with our stakeholders including, most importantly, our community. We are preparing this through an administration with insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor, to seek the best outcome for customers with the goal of continuing the platform in a restructured form. The restructure could involve equity in BetIndex Limited being distributed to customers, board representation for customers, and a new management team put in place, along with other initiatives.

“Until such time as the administrators are in office, the platform will remain suspended and no trading or payment transactions, such as deposits and withdrawals, will be possible. Once in office, the administrators will be in contact with customers, creditors, and other stakeholders. This interim step of suspending the platform is merely to ensure that everyone’s rights are preserved in relation to funds held by BetIndex Limited. We fully understand and anticipate concerns regarding a temporary suspension of your ability to withdraw existing Cash Balances and assure you that they will remain held in a segregated account to be managed in conjunction with our advisors, protected by the trust arrangements that are in place and will be subject to review by the administrators.

“The Board have at all times been seeking the best way to sustain the platform as we believed a recovery was not only possible but also in the best interests of our customers,” it added. “This decision is deeply regrettable, and is the outcome we were seeking to avoid by restructuring dividends. However, we believe it is the most responsible route forward for our community given the situation as it has developed.”

Launched in 2015, Football Index sold ‘shares’ in leading footballers and paid dividends to customers depending on a player’s performance on the pitch. Some customers are believed to have made six-figure deposits with the company.

A spokesperson at the British Gambling Commission said: “The suspension follows an ongoing section 116 review into the operator, as we had concerns activities may have been carried on in purported reliance on the license, but not in accordance with a condition of the license, and that Football Index may not be suitable to carry on with licensed activities.We have made it clear to the operator that as the investigation progresses, we expect it to focus on treating consumers fairly and keeping them fully informed of any developments which impact them. Football Index can be contacted via their website and as part of our review we continue to work closely with colleagues from the Jersey Gambling Commission.