Football Index


Football Index, founded by Adam Cole, is a UK-licensed and regulated gambling platform, known as the Football Stockmarket or simply The Index, that allows football enthusiasts to gamble on the future success of football players. Traders place fixed-odds bets, known as Shares, for the chance to win daily payouts - more commonly referred to as Dividends. Dividends are calculated based on player performance on match days, and their presence in the platform's Media Rankings which pay out on the top trending footballers each day.

Company overview

BetIndex Ltd launched Football Index in October 2015 as a platform to gamble on football players. The stock exchange cap called 'The Footie' started with the launch of the platform on 2 October 2015 with a base value of 1,000 points. As of 3 April 2020 the Footie has grown to 159,207. Trader portfolios range from £10 to over £1,000,000, and 2% is charged as commission on sales. In January 2018, Football Index reached 100k users, and surpassed half a million Traders in late 2019.
The company is owned by Index Labs, formerly Fame Ventures, who hold the software license for Football Index.
During the 2018/2019 football season, over £321 million was traded on the platform, and over £4.3 million was paid out to Traders through Dividends.
In 2020, Football Index finalised a partnership with NASDAQ, whose technology will power an Order Books system to be implemented later in the year.

Mechanics

A Footballer's value rises and falls based on supply and demand from Traders. In-demand Footballers will become more valuable, whilst the value of Footballers on downward trajectories will reflect their fall. Traders build a portfolio to capitalise on footballers' form and try to win Dividends based on their performances and media attention. There are four ways to make money on Football Index:

'''Capital Appreciation'''

The ‘buy low, sell high’ fundamentals of any conventional stock market apply in Football Index. Many Traders base their strategy around buying a player they think will go up in value, and then selling at a profit.

'''Matchday Dividends'''

Match Day Rankings is the daily monitor of footballing performance on Match Days. Match Day Dividends are won across the top leagues in Europe, the main two European football tournaments, the main two national team competitions and the UEFA European Championship Qualifiers. Eligible competitions may also include additional competitions as and when they are available. The amount of Match Day Dividends paid out depends on the number of, and the prestige level of, the football matches taking place on that day. The top scoring defender, midfielder, and forward each match day based on the number of points they accumulate using Opta statistics, win the Dividend.

'''In-Play Dividends'''

A supplement to Matchday Dividends, this mechanic allows Traders to win Dividends for every goal, assist, and in the case of goalkeepers, clean sheet, their players produce in a Trader’s first 30 days of owning the shares.

'''Media Dividends'''

The original Dividend mechanic of Football Index. The company pays out a Dividend to traders who own shares in the top trending Footballer across its 20 media outlets every day of the year. Footballers are attributed points based on the nature of the mention, and the player with the most points at the end of the day finishes top of the Media Rankings, winning the Dividend for traders who own shares in him.

The Football Index Community

The Football Index community is made up of thousands of Traders with varying levels of involvement. Traders are invited to converse about Football Index through - an active hub for discussion on trading with over 45,000 posts. The company run popular social media accounts across all of the main social channels - primarily informing Traders about industry news through Twitter and Instagram.
FITV is Football Index's YouTube Channel which features regular videos from company staff, guest pundits and Football Index in general.
An in-depth training resource - - is available to new and existing Football Index Traders. It contains descriptions of the platform's rules and mechanics, plus tactics and strategies designed to enhance Trader portfolios. Weekly blogs from a host of football writers deliver the community news and opinions.
The community is kept busy and involved through regular Trader meets, competitions and online interaction.
The official Football Index podcast was launched in 2019, with several well-known football journalists making guest appearances, including The Independent’s Tony Evans and freelance writer Jonathan Wilson.

Advertising and Marketing

was unveiled in August 2018 as the voice of Football Index. The iconic football commentator was heard on Football Index television and radio adverts for the 2018/19 football season. Football Index advertises regularly on ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Sports.
In July 2018 Football Index were unveiled as the shirt sponsor for the 18/19 season of Bristol Rovers.
Guillem Balague was unveiled in September 2018 as a brand ambassador for Football Index. A regular pundit for Sky Sports, Balague added his knowledge and expertise of La Liga and the wider football world to the . His role at Football Index includes hosting trader events, producing regular, exclusive blogs and videos and appearing on FITV.
A second football expert, Raphael Honigstein, joined Football Index as a contributor in 2019.
In June 2019, Football Index became the shirt sponsor for EFL Championship club Nottingham Forest, representing the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the club’s history.

The Founder

Adam Cole started Electric Video which dealt with pre-recorded video and DVD which was later sold to Richard Desmond.
He also founded MyVillage network, a website that lists local restaurants, bars and services in the whole of the UK.

Funding

Football Index secured £1.92m of funding from Burlywood Capital, the venture arm of gambling veteran Mark Blandford, who founded SportingBet.
On 10 May 2016, they raised £1,156,327 through the crowdfunding platform Seedrs in exchange for 15.10% equity, at a pre-money valuation of £4,497,268.