Former City traders to launch novel financial betting site

A group of former City traders have come together to launch a new egaming site aimed at simplifying financial markets for punters.

Golden Boys, which was recently awarded a licence by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, counts among its principals Martin Linham, the former CEO of Nasdaq-listed telecoms company CallKey International.

The site is set to launch tomorrow after a period of beta-testing, with its flagship ‘Millionaires’ game to debut on Friday. The game allows players to predict the last numbers of the closing prices of eight different stocks for the opportunity to win a £1m jackpot.

Other games set to go live this week include online scratchcards in which players have to match stocks of the same variety and single-player and multi-player games based on whether certain stocks go up or down across a given time period.

“We’re trying to demystify the market, simplifying it to something that can either go up or down, and there are definitely similarities with other kinds of betting.” Linham told eGaming Review.

In relation to the fourth game set for launch this week – the multi-player “Tick Poker” in which players predict whether certain stocks go up or down or end up odd or even – Linham also notes that “Things like table selection are key for poker players getting involved and it has some value with Golden Boys.

“It can be aimed both at trading based people or those who just want to play poker or cards,” he added.

Linham explained that there are more games in the pipeline, including one which he describes as “A first-past-the-post style game using financial markets” as well as a Monopoly-style game in which players aim to build a financial portfolio.

A number of mobile apps will also follow in the coming months, with Golden Boys currently in discussions over launching a version of the Millionaires game in Apple’s app store, which it hopes will go live as soon as June.