Usually in the 2nd week of March, it’s the Cheltenham Festival which takes up the headlines in the mainstream media, at least from a gambling perspective.
But no, www.footballindex.co.uk ‘s crash has grabbed all of the headlines.
The ‘football stock market’ prices crashed last week, leaving investors without the ability to withdraw their funds. It is a sad story for many who have lost tens of thousands of pounds.
But…had these customers read the terms and conditions, then red flags would be raised. Punters profit via dividends paid out on the players they buy ‘shares’ in.
Here are some of the T’s and C’s which should have caused concerns :
‘The Dividend Table will change from time to time. This will usually only occur during prescribed periods and will apply to open Bets as well as new Bets. The structure and level of Dividend set by us is primarily influenced by the volume of Shares being traded on the platform. If the volume of trading increases, it is more likely (but not certain) that the level of Dividend offered may be maintained or increase. However, if the volume of trading decreases, it is more likely (but not certain) that the level of Dividend offered may decrease. Please see clause 4 for more information. Any change in the Dividend is likely to impact Share prices.’
‘The basis on which Dividends are awarded may change (e.g. the overall structure of or categories in our Dividend offering, adjustments to the match day scoring matrix, or footballer positional changes).’
‘We may add, remove or change product features and/or functionality. This may impact how or when you can place, or cash-out of, Bets and/or otherwise use the platform.’
‘Where we make any material changes that are to your detriment, we will give you at least 30 days’ advance notice by alerting you on the home page of this site and the app and/or by email.’
‘4.3.2. we will only be permitted make reductions to the level of Dividends in January and June each year (however, we reserve the right to amend, reduce or withdraw Dividends at other times where this is necessary ‘
Effectively, www.footballindex.co.uk give themselves carte blanche to change dividend payouts.
This results in crashes like this one.
This is the price crash for Lionel Messi. What caused the crash? www.footballindex.co.uk caused the crash. Messi didn’t suddenly revert to playing in clown shoes at the behest of manager Ronald ‘McDonald’ Koeman.
What can you learn from this?
Read the Terms and Conditions and if they do not resonate, then do not play!
This is all by-the-by now but has certainly made me more aware of Terms and Conditions. Heck, I don’t know, when accepting google’s recent terms and conditions, whether I have signed away my soul to them!
For those affected by www.footballindex.co.uk, there is a petition at change.org. The regulators were Jersey Gambling Commission and UK Gambling Commission so you may want to monitor these bodies. The Administrators are Begbies Traynor
I do hope you were not affected by this crash at www.footballindex.co.uk
I am grateful at least that buying and selling football players didn’t really resonate with me.
On a lighter note, it’s Cheltenham next week. Those of you who read What Really Wins Money will be armed with some great Cheltenham Angles. The Gordon Elliott fiasco though might threaten his runners.
Good luck if you play next week.