More than 300 Scottish people are considering starting legal action against the recently collapsed online gambling operator Football Index.
Thousands of gamblers across the country are desperate they have lost massive amounts amount of money, with the overall sum amounting to up to £90 million after the infamous betting platform became insolvent. Football Index, which claimed to have a customer base of around 500,000 users, went bust in March 2021 after being unable to pay players their dividends at the promised rates. For the time being, it is believed to be the biggest gambling firm scandal in the history of the UK gambling sector.
As confirmed by the legal firm Leigh Day, 336 people originating from Scotland have signed up with the firm, as they consider starting a lawsuit against the gambling operator on behalf of no less than 7,000 Football Index customers in the UK. Nicola Marshall from Leigh Day explained that the consideration and investigation of the potential legal claims of the customers are still in the early stages but the firm has already gotten in contact with hundreds of Scotts who had invested in the company.
As Marshall said, some serious questions on what exactly had happened at Football Index need to be answered first. The law firm would also have to check what the UK gambling regulator had understood of the gambling company’s activities before proceeding with the legal action.
UKGC Was Urged to Take Action against BetIndex in January 2020
As Casino Guardian has previously explained, the users of Football Index were able to buy “shares” in certain football players – an investment for which they received dividends based on the players’ performance. Although the service focused mainly on the English Premier League (EPL), it also provided its customers with the chance to invest in Celtic and Rangers players such as Odsonne Edouard and Alfredo Morelos, and trade their holdings for a commission.
It was previously revealed that in January 2020 the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) was warned that the gambling company was actually a pyramid scheme that was “exceptionally dangerous”. However, no regulatory action followed at the time. The gambling watchdog finally suspended the operating licence of BetIndex a few weeks ago.
Following the suspension, Football Index has revealed it remains hopeful it would be allowed to continue operating its platform in a restructured form.
The UKGC faced a wave of criticism for “failing the trust” of the company’s customers because it did not take action against the operator of the gambling platform at the time it received the warning that it was a fraudulent pyramid scheme masked as a football stock market. At the time, the regulatory body was called to take urgent action into the platform’s operations so that the company’s users were protected. However, it did not do so and now, thousands of people across the UK have lost money on the operator that is unable to pay their dividends.
- Author
Olivia Cole
