Football Index, the trading name of St Helier-based firm BetIndex, which employed 50 people, went into administration last month after suffering heavy losses. It had its licence revoked by the Jersey Gambling Commission on 11 March.
The platform operated like a stock market for footballers, enabling customers to place bets on their future performance. It is understood the collapse has lost many customers thousands of pounds’ worth of deposits they placed.
In the House of Lords last week, Lord Sikka – a Labour peer – asked what discussions the UK government had had with the Jersey Gambling Commission on the ‘capital adequacy’ and ‘stress testing’ that had been carried out on Football Index.
Capital adequacy is measuring a company’s cash reserves against the potential debts or risks it faces, while stress tests assess how a company might respond in a crisis.
Baroness Barran, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said that the UK and Jersey authorities were in talks about the Football Index collapse.
‘The government is monitoring the situation with Football Index closely and ministers have met the [UK’s] Gambling Commission twice to receive urgent reports,’ she said.
‘A live investigation by the commission is ongoing.’
