Collapse of Football Index
Discussion
How was Football Index anything other than a Ponzi scheme?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56401707
"Some critics argue Football Index was akin to a Ponzi scheme. "To pay out dividends, it required more customers to deposit money. When that dried up, the problems started", said Matt Zarb-Cousin, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling and a former gambling addict.
"Football Index is an unsustainable business model. They created a stock market out of assets they themselves created. The football players on the market had no underlying value," he said."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56401707
"Some critics argue Football Index was akin to a Ponzi scheme. "To pay out dividends, it required more customers to deposit money. When that dried up, the problems started", said Matt Zarb-Cousin, of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling and a former gambling addict.
"Football Index is an unsustainable business model. They created a stock market out of assets they themselves created. The football players on the market had no underlying value," he said."
The massive amount of betting sponsorship in sport now does point to a potential gambling problem building up in the population, some of the amounts people have lost in that story are pretty high, the internet makes it very easy for people to gamble away their cash whilst just seeing it as a game.
greygoose said:
The massive amount of betting sponsorship in sport now does point to a potential gambling problem building up in the population, some of the amounts people have lost in that story are pretty high, the internet makes it very easy for people to gamble away their cash whilst just seeing it as a game.
I see this with my colleagues, a lot of them are having several bets every single day. I don't think they necessarily have a problem as I'm sure they only gamble small amounts and sometimes they win and mostly they lose and it balances itself out when you factor in the entertainment they're getting. But with gambling becoming more and more normalised it must increase the numbers of people that become problem gamblers. When you read the article, it is clear from the way the marks talk that they felt like they were investors and not fools being drained of their money. I suppose that was probably their angle all along, to get people feeling like their "portfolio" had some value and was worth growing and holding on to, when in truth it was just a financial liability.
If this was simply an index, provided the business took a small commission on each transaction & the punters were correctly margined, the business cannot lose.
The funding of the 'dividend' seems to be the problem. Other than taking it out of their profits, how else can they pay one (other than creating a Ponzi scheme).
The funding of the 'dividend' seems to be the problem. Other than taking it out of their profits, how else can they pay one (other than creating a Ponzi scheme).
It was advertised extremely heavily on TalkSport. Every ad break it was on.
Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
Matt p said:
It was advertised extremely heavily on TalkSport. Every ad break it was on.
Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
Here's something I never thought I'd say - I now watch the football on the American channels for precisely this reason, as they don't advertise gambling. It seems like every second advert is for gambling on UK sports TV. It really is everywhere if you have any interest in sport on watch or listen.Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
Matt p said:
It was advertised extremely heavily on TalkSport. Every ad break it was on.
Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
How are you watching? There are various means to remove ads (some free) depending on how you're accessing YouTube.Personally I really despise advertising for gambling/bookmakers. A YouTube channel that both my son and I love (Carl and Alex fishing) unfortunately have bookmaker ads prior to the video starting. It’s now at the point where I’ll not let him watch the channel. He’s only 7.
greygoose said:
The massive amount of betting sponsorship in sport now does point to a potential gambling problem building up in the population, some of the amounts people have lost in that story are pretty high, the internet makes it very easy for people to gamble away their cash whilst just seeing it as a game.
The lobbyists working on behalf of the gambling industry are clearly earning their money.Didn't it take an absolute s
tstorm to get high payout fruit machines removed from betting shops?The sad truth though is that vice is profitable, both for companies and in terms of taxation.
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