Have you been misled by Football Index?
If you were lucky enough to sell your football index stock/portfolio before the announcement on 5th March 2021, then it is highly unlikely you suffered a substantial loss.
However, it has been estimated by sources including BBC that thousands of Football Index customers may be affected.
Users are unable to withdraw funds from their accounts and, if the business collapses, it could leave individual customers facing substantial losses.
According to reports, Football Index were misleading its customers into believing it was in good financial health and expanding into new markets and growing as a company in 2020 and even early 2021. It turns out that this was not correct and they had been struggling to keep up with dividend payments to customers and its obligations to buy stock back at a certain price. This resulted in many customers continuing to trade and fresh share issues being made.
What is Football Index?
Football Index is an online betting website, similar to the stock market. The Platform allowed users to buy what it called “shares” in football players and receive “dividends” – according to their performance.
As a customer, you could make money in two different ways, either receiving a dividend from good performances or the stock price of your player increasing due to the player being transferred to a bigger club.
Football Index called itself a “challenge to traditional bookmakers” and an alternative to the regular stock market which it said could “seem intimidating and inaccessible”. Although it used the terminology, Football Index was never regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The commission suspended Football Index’s licence last week, after the platform’s announcement to make drastic changes to its dividend table meaning dividend payouts would be 80% less than before.
What was the loss suffered by consumers?
Earlier this month, the company had to cut dividend pay-outs on players, which caused a crash in their share price value. The firm has now suspended operations and appointed administrators, sparking strong criticism from customers whose money is still locked up in the platform.
Sources including BBC estimate that customers could lose more than £90m.
In their letter, the MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Related Harm estimate that Football Index customers have lost £3,000 each on average.
The Claim
Charles Lyndon is now investigating a potential legal claim on behalf of any customers who have lost money as a result of the company’s actions.
Charles Lyndon are pioneers in the private enforcement of consumer law in England and Wales and have extensive experience working on group actions on behalf of consumers and businesses. Our financial litigation lawyers can assess whether you have a claim and will be able to advise you on how to proceed.
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