English Championship sides Nottingham Forest and QPR have both cut ties with Football Index. The news comes after the company had their UK Gambling Commission licence suspended.
Both clubs had Football Index as their front of shirt sponsor but no more. The website has been put into administration as well as having their licence suspended. Many financially affected by the collapse of the site believe more action should have been taken by the Commission.
QPR had a one-year deal with Football Index but a statement released on Friday (March 12) said “effective immediately” the deal was over. No more will the Football Index logo will be seen on the front of their shirts. It’s the same situation at Nottingham Forest and there won’t be any further ‘Index Classico’ games between the two clubs.
The Football Index site was a different way of gambling on football. It described itself as a “the football stock market.”. Rather than betting on the results of matches, there was trading on “shares” of virtual footballers. There was the chance of seeing the value of players rise earning the site members the chance to receive “dividends” and make some profits.
March didn’t get off to a good start for Football Index. Changes were made that led to the share price falling and users of the site making financial losses. With an 80% cut in dividends, it’s believed that overall losses for those using the site could be as high as £90 million.
Worse was to come when on Thursday (March 11), it was announced that Football Index had gone into administration. A restructuring of the company was planned, and they accepted that the changes made to the dividend hadn’t “been well received.”
Now it is no longer possible for site users to do any trading. Nor are they able to make any deposits or more importantly withdrawals as the platform has been suspended. Site users now have no way at present of getting their cash back from Football Index. It’s a nightmare situation for them not knowing if the situation with Football Index will improve.
It’s not just Football Index that users are venting their anger at. They have accused the UK Gambling Commission of “being asleep at the wheel” as the collapse of Football Index took place.
Football Index had a UK Gambling Commission licence under the name of BetIndex Ltd. Friday saw that operating licence suspended. A statement by the Commission said that they “had concerns activities may have been carried on in purported reliance on the licence, but no in accordance with a condition of the licence.”
All of which meant that they considered Football Index “may not be suitable to carry on with licensed activities.” It may be a fair while until just how much the collapse has cost site users, but it could be the largest gambling loss in UK history.
