Former Football Index CEO blacklisted by Jersey Gambling Commission

Former Football Index CEO Adam Cole has been blacklisted by the Jersey Gambling Commission from holding any position within a gambling firm licensed by the regulator. Cole stepped down from his role as CEO to become chair of Football Index in December 2020, three months before the company slipped into administration as customers lost around £124m in open bets. Cole oversaw proceedings as Football Index’s parent company, BetIndex, enjoyed hockey-stick financial growth, largely unchecked by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), before announcing a huge cut in dividends awarded for media coverage and on-field performances. This, along with the removal of the instant sell function so that Football Index operated more akin to a peer-to-peer financial stock market, contributed to a crash and customers left struggling to sell their ‘shares’, which were three-year bets on players rather than actual shares. The firm went into administration and was subject to a review led by Malcolm Sheehan QC which laid bare the details into what was the biggest UK gambling industry failure to date. Football Index had both its Jersey and UK licence revoked by the respective regulators and Cole has now been reprimanded indefinitely for his role in the scandal. In a statement, the Jersey Gambling Commission said: “With effect from Wednesday, 6 April 2022, Mr Cole is prohibited from undertaking or holding himself out as undertaking, any position at all, whether employed or not, in any company licensed by the commission. “This direction is of an unlimited duration save that Mr Cole has the right under Article 35 (6) of the law to apply to the commission to have it withdrawn or varied,” the statement concluded. The UKGC has yet to issue a similar notice of direction to Cole. In December 2021, more than a dozen MPs put their signatures to an Early Day Motion (EDM) expressing their concerns over the ongoing fallout from the scandal.