Recently, it has been confirmed that a large number of Northern Ireland customers who have been affected by the collapse of Football Index will not get any money back from the country’s gambling regulatory body.
As Casino Guardian reported, customers of the gambling company lost millions of pounds after Football Index – an operator offering a football stock market service – went into administration in March 2021. The online gambling platform provided its users with the chance to buy and trade “shares” in real football players and get dividends according to the players’ performances on the field.
The operating licence of the Football Index’s parent company was officially suspended by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) on March 11th, 2021. The move, however, left the consumers who had open bets on the platform trapped. According to reports, the customers’ funds that were left on the platform totalled no less than £90 million.
Later, administrators were called in and the authorities rolled out an independent review into what exactly had happened so that the online gambling operator fell into administration. The results of the investigation were published in September, with the administrators criticising severely not only the company, but also the UKGC and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for their serious lack of action before the collapse of Football Index.
UKGC and FCA Face Criticism for Lack of Action before the Collapse of BetIndex’s Online Gambling Platform
According to the report published by Malcolm Sheehan QC, the UK Gambling Commission was not really aware of the gambling platform’s business model and structure. Furthermore, both the UKGC and the FCA were reluctant to take adequate responsibility action in order to protect the website’s customers.
Experts noted that Football Index’s platform could have been subject to the review of the Financial Conduct Authority as it mirrored a stock exchange, and this is currently the body that regulates investment and share-trading platforms in the UK.
Furthermore, it was not until March 2018 when the UKGC, which granted an operating licence to the company in 2015, actually realised that the company’s platform featured a stock-market functionality. The UK gambling watchdog has also faced strong criticism due to the fact it was not fully aware of how Football Index actually functioned until early 2019. As Casino Guardian reported at the time, the online gambling operator’s licence was suspended by the UKGC in March 2021.
The investigation found that hundreds of users in Northern Ireland were affected by the collapse of Football Index.
Deirdre Hargey, the Communities Minister, shared she had been very concerned to learn about the massive number of people who had lost money through BetIndex’s online gambling platform. She explained that although the UKGC had made it clear that BetIndex was expected to treat the customers who had been negatively affected by its collapse fairly and keep them informed of any developments of the situation, the regulatory body of the British gambling sector had been unable to offer any offer of reparation for them, as it does not have any statutory powers to do so.
- Author
Daniel Williams
