FI Action

The Football Index Action Group

Join Football Index users affected by its collapse in our pursuit of justice

Write to your MP if you’ve been affected by the collapse of Football Index using the template below.

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Reply to: [your email]
        
Dear [your MP],

Personal Experience: [your exp]

I am writing to draw your attention to  the Gambling Commission (“GC”), Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”)  and government's involvement in, culpability for, and response to the collapse of Football Index (“FI”). This has been described as the ‘biggest scandal in British gambling history’.

As you are aware, BetIndex Ltd (the company that operated FI) entered administration in March 2021, leaving thousands of customers facing cumulative losses of up to a staggering £124 million. This figure represents the value of bets that were still open (i.e. not lost) at the time of FI’s collapse. As a constituent of yours, I wanted to make you aware that I was affected by this.

However, mine is not an isolated case by any means. The scale and the depth of the harms that have arisen are detailed in the 750 letters from fellow victims that have been attached to the end of this email. These are simultaneously going out to MPs across the country, and reviewing any number of them will give you an insight into the scale and impact of this scandal on the lives of people.

The government’s subsequent independent review into FI’s collapse carried out by Malcolm Sheehan KC (“MSKC”) identified several failings of the GC and FCA.

In respect of the GC, the regulator failed to identify key features of the product at the time of the licence application in 2015. It failed to ensure adequate information was provided by BetIndex, to monitor the development of the product adequately thereafter and to take any meaningful action once it identified (by March 2019) that BetIndex appeared to be operating outside the scope of its licence. It also illustrates that, although the GC’s ‘enforcement team’ became involved in March 2020, no meaningful enforcement action appears to have been taken before BetIndex entered administration twelve months later. The GC CEO Andrew Rhodes confirmed at a meeting with FIAG that they were powerless to enforce against features outside of their regulatory remit even though they had provided the original licence and been informed of the evolution of the product.

In respect of the FCA, there were very significant delays in responding to the GC after it first sought the FCA’s advice in May 2019 and throughout its involvement. It also illustrates that the FCA was very indecisive, changing its view twice as to whether the FI product fell within its regulatory remit. On the two separate occasions, in September 2019 and September 2020, when it indicated that FI did fall within its remit, no adequate follow up action was taken by the FCA to ensure that the product was properly regulated.

MSKC’s 193 page review makes it abundantly clear from the outset that its aim was not to apportion fault or blame, instead to simply provide the regulators’ explanation of events. The tone is distinctly passive, with little pushback or interrogation of the explanations offered. It does not even conduct its review within the context of whether the GC failed to uphold the licensing objectives in the 2005 Gambling Act.

Contrast this with the appointment of Dame Elizabeth Gloster to investigate the collapse of London Capital and Finance (“LCF”), who is a former judge of the Court of Appeal. She carried out an 18 month long investigation resulting in a near 500 page report regarding just the FCA in a far more determined effort to hold regulators to account, even addressing the subject of compensation. A final and simple differentiation is that MSKC did not even bother to meet a representative customer group, whereas Dame Elizabeth did and specifically cited the benefit of meeting LCF bondholders in carrying out her investigation. Put simply, whilst the MSKC review highlights critical failures of the GC and FCA, the staggering number of omissions and lack of interrogation in the review means that the reality is that the failings of the GC and FCA are far greater than what has been identified.

Whilst the failings identified in the review are more than sufficient to warrant full redress to FI victims, unfortunately I am sensitive to the misrepresentation of us by some as “gamblers who have lost”. As such I am aware that there is a reluctance from those who are not informed to empathise and therefore believe that we are deserving of redress. Sadly, this misconception was given further credibility in a statement from the GC. Immediately after the MSKC review was released the CEO of the GC Andrew Rhodes thought it an appropriate time to remind people that “no one should gamble more than they can afford to lose”. This lack of compassion for people impacted by a lack of consumer protection is a further damning indictment on the prevailing culture at the GC, which ultimately contributed to their failings related to FI from licensing all the way up until administration.

The fact is no bets have been “lost”, the GC have enabled bets to be staked but not honoured, and to the value of £124 million. However, this false narrative peddled by the GC was allowed to dominate the review, unchallenged by MSKC. The review fails to grasp the sheer magnitude of the deception that took place by FI, and which was enabled by the GC and FCA, having positioned and promoted itself as a safe investment with “guaranteed yields”. This attracted a significant number users who were wholly misled as to the nature of the FI product and the degree of safeguards pertaining to its regulation.

In light of all the above, we have disappointingly and frustratingly been forced as victims to take it upon ourselves to push for a just outcome. We have therefore compiled detailed documents outlining the full extent of the scandal, the further failings of the regulators and MSKC, together with serious inconsistencies in the GC and FCA’s testimonies. We are disappointed with the lack of leadership from the government on this matter. It is wholly unsatisfactory that it must instead fall to consumers, who have had their lives severely impacted, to pursue redress.

Since MSKC’s review, there have also been further revelations in The Athletic that the GC enabled a potential fraud. Moreover, it has been reported in The Guardian that by permitting FI, the GC licensed a Ponzi scheme that "should never have got off the ground in the first place". On this point in particular, MSKC’s review is extremely weak, merely stating why the GC believes it did not licence a Ponzi scheme without providing any interrogation of this claim.

Unfortunately, all of the above is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the depth of what has been allowed to take place. I therefore request an urgent meeting with you and any other constituents who have been affected by the FI scandal, with the aim of explaining what has happened in full. Once you are armed with full information, I hope that you will be in a position to write to the gambling minister, Baroness Twycross, pushing for full redress for myself and my fellow victims.

It is now known that the liquidation of BetIndex Ltd, FI’s trading company, will yield next to nothing for victims given it entered liquidation and is forecast to return just 1% of the total amount of open contracts that were outstanding at the time of its collapse. This is a monumental failure for any company, not least a company that was regulated by the GC and was allegedly subjected to enhanced surveillance including a “detailed financial review” the regulator commenced in March 2020.

I am asking for you to push for redress on behalf of all those who have been failed so devastatingly and without precedent by the GC, FCA and government, including our families and those close to us. You will be aware that there has been high profile coverage of previous regulatory failings by the FCA, which has led to compensation schemes being set up, such as in the recent LCF case. This has significant parallels to the regulatory failings identified in respect of FI. However, the FI scandal represents a colossal failure of not just one but two major regulators.

FIAG have fought continual barriers from regulators and government departments in the pursuit of redress or even an acknowledgement of government culpability for letting down consumers. GC, FCA, DCMS and Treasury have continually declined legitimate Freedom of Information requests and had their decisions overturned on appeal. FIAG’s letter of complaint to the FCA led to an 11 month wait for a response, which contained inaccurate information and false claims. In spite of this, the following insights have been established by FIAG:

1. GC provided permission to Bet Index to sell and trade these “bets” before the platform was launched.

2. GC were, before the platform was launched, provided an independent test certificate confirming the Football Index website had the ability for consumers (called “traders” by the platform) to sell and trade these bets.

3. GC were alerted by their French counterpart, ARJEL, to the true nature of the platform in March 2019. GC emailed ARJEL stating “the operator is trying to be clever and turn it into a betting product”.

4. GC organised a meeting in March 2020 entitled “Football Index platform – how does it work?” — astonishing given the original platform was licenced in April 2015.

5. FCA provided multiple assurances to GC that this was a platform that required FCA regulation.

6. FCA provided advice to Bet Index themselves in September 2020 that the product required their approval, even without the ability to sell and trade bets via the market that Bet Index had created and the GC licenced.

7. Nikhil Rathi, CEO of FCA, confirmed in March 2021 that a sporting spread bet could be a financial instrument in a letter to John Whittingdale MP — the then DCMS Secretary of State — specifically regarding Football Index.

8. Nikhil Rathi announced that FCA Legal Counsel, Sean Martin, was leaving with immediate effect 2 days before Mr Martin officially resigned.

9. Andrew Rhodes called a meeting with FIAG in November 2021 where then Executive Director Helen Venn told FIAG that GC were aware of the trading aspect of the platform when the product was licenced. A recording of this meeting is available. She left the GC in January 2022.

10. FCA wrote to FIAG in August 2023 stating that Football Index wasn’t a product that should be licenced by the FCA as it is a sporting spread bet, even though FCA regulate the only two companies that are licensed to provide sporting spread bets in Britain.

11. The Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner have published their final report into FIAG’s complaint about the FCA which is highly critical of the regulator and makes recommendations to Treasury. These were subsequently rebuffed.

12. The FI liquidators, Begbies, have spent circa £100,000 on legal fees taking HMRC to court to obtain a refund of £1.9m of General Betting Duty (“GBD”) that Bet Index paid in the last 15 months of trading. Despite the court finding in favour, HMRC are refusing to even discuss this situation with Begbies. When you consider that 15% GBD was paid on the sum of £124 million which was outstanding when the platform collapsed that means that they received over £18 million during the lifetime of the platform. 

13. Since the inception of FI in 2015, the FCA has raised over £1.9 billion in fines to the benefit of Treasury. As a result, mechanisms already exist to compensate consumers let down by financial regulation. This should also be relevant in cases where financial regulation should have applied and it is clear FI needed FCA oversight.

14. The liquidators of FI’s parent company, Index Labs, reported in October 2024 that they had raised £400k from the creditors of Bet Index to settle ongoing litigation. These creditors are victims of Football Index. Millions have been paid out in legal fees and liquidators’ time and there is now nothing left to distribute.

While measures that might prevent a similar instance occurring are obviously welcome, we should not be considered collateral damage from lessons that should have been learned a long time ago. The Football Index Action Group (FIAG) has continued to fight for justice, obtaining documents via Freedom of Information requests, escalating concerns to regulators, and briefing MPs for Parliamentary debates. Please visit fiaction.com to watch FIAG’s video explainer on what happened and why those impacted are deserving of redress.

I hope you agree and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Best regards,
[Your name]
[Your email]
[Your address]
FI Action

The Football Index Action Group

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