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BetIndex financial assessment

Request

In the blog post made by the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, he asserted "At the detailed financial assessment in early 2020, BetIndex was able to cover the liabilities in bet dividends for at least 12 months (in cash holdings) and potentially for three years if it made significant reductions to its overheads."

I am requesting a copy of this financial assessment of Bet Index and all supporting documents.

Response

Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

In your email you have referenced the blog post made by the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, where he asserted “At the detailed financial assessment in early 2020, BetIndex was able to cover the liabilities in bet dividends for at least 12 months (in cash holdings) and potentially for three years if it made significant reductions to its overheads."

You have requested a copy of this financial assessment of Bet Index and all supporting documents.

The following slide, which falls within the scope of your request, was presented to us by BetIndex. To be helpful we have provided supporting information to assist with contextualising the information included on this slide.

The image is made up of a slide from a presentation slide deck and is entitled Football Index - Financial Model Dividends. The slide shows a number of bullet points and provides an explanation around the three types of dividends offered by Football Index.

There are 3 types of dividend:

  • inplay dividend
  • matchday dividends which are paid, as the name suggests, on performance, e.g. match performance, on the different qualifying types by player whether it be attacker, goals made
  • media dividends which is positive media coverage of the player.

The dividends are all expensed in the period that they are paid and there is no requirement under UK GAAP to accrue for future dividends but BetIndex did accrue for future dividends in their capital adequacy reserve, which at the end of December 2019, ran at £16.5 million; at that point there was also an additional £8.5 million cash in the bank which gave total cash at the end of the year of circa £25 million.

BetIndex amortised the dividends paid in December 2019 at a rate of 2.5% per month (this is because bets expire after a period of time and therefore, assuming no new bets being struck, the dividend level in December 2019 would reduce down to zero over time) meaning the £25 million would cover 40 months worth of dividend payments (against bets that lasted for 36 months).

We were previously provided with Management Accounts for the year ended 31/12/2019. The cash figure in this document was in line with the cash figure as noted above.

At the time of publication the blog post was fact checked and approved by numerous senior officials, who advised the content was, to their knowledge and understanding, accurate.

Disclosure of the information that we hold relating to the management accounts has previously been refused by the Gambling Commission and is subject to an appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) (Information Rights), This information will remain exempt from disclosure awaiting the outcome of the FTT decision.

Review of the decision

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request you are entitled to an internal review of our decision. You should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email.

Please note, internal review requests should be made within 40 working days of the initial response. Requests made outside this timeframe will not be processed.

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission.

The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in a new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP

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