Campaigners have warned that users of the virtual gambling platform, Football Index, may attempt suicide after incurring devastating losses amounting to tens of thousands of pounds following a collapse of share prices on the site.
Football Index is a football trading game in which users buy and sell 'shares' in leading players and receive dividends based on performance. In some cases, participants 'invested' huge sums of money.
However, the company has run into financial difficulties and announced a cut in dividends and issued more shares, among other changes, in an attempt to secure 'the long-term sustainability of the platform'.
Spooked punters responded by trying to get their money out of the game and this led to a disastrous collapse in share prices, which the campaigners say swept away thousands of pounds, threatening lives and livelihoods.
'There will be suicide attempts because of this,' said James Grimes, founder of the football gambling campaign group, The Big Step.
'When your whole life revolves around investing in a gambling company and it is stripped away it can be deadly. We know gambling can kill.
'It builds up to complete shame.'
Sportsmail has heard accounts from customers, who claim they have lost up to £60,000, and said that the experience has 'destroyed' their lives, leaving them worrying for their family's future.
Football Index issued a market update' on Friday and suspend trading in the game until Saturday at 7am.
However, as the impact of the changes became clear, the company put out a further statement on Saturday, which urged users to seek help if they had been affected by the unfolding events.
'We know that the Dividend Announcement on Friday has caused frustration and disappointment, and has been a stressful experience for many of you.
'Anyone who is concerned about their well-being, or the well-being of another user should consider the resources available on our Safer Gambling page or these mental health resources,' the statement said in the second paragraph.
Grimes is angry that while punters' lives were falling apart at the weekend, Football Index was still advertising at matches for new customers. The company is the shirt sponsor for Nottingham Forest and QPR and has made use of pitch side adverts.
'This is a company that has not put people at the heart of what they do. And in their time of crisis, they tell them to gamble responsibly, but the company created this.
'They were still advertising [at the weekend]. People's lives have been destroyed and they are still allowed to advertise like nothing has happened.'
The concept of placing bets on the performance of players, labelled as 'buying shares', proved immensely popular, with campaigners estimating tens of thousands of people play.
A matchday chart ranks the players, and the best performers will earn their owners a dividend. Football Index said that it paid out £11million last season.
But the company could not afford to continue paying out at the same level admitting it has 'sustained substantial losses' in recent months.
As confidence ebbed away, it was reported that share prices among the top 200 players on the platform nosedived to 1p or 2p. For others, there wasn't a sell price available at all.
On Sunday, the gap between the buy and sell price of shares was large, making it effectively impossible for investors to make any money from the platform.
Borussia Dortmund ace Erling Haaland could be bought for £2.37, but sold for just 75p, a reduction of £3.29. His average offer price stood at £7.49.
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes, one of the most popular players on the site, had a buy price of £1.54. His sell price was £1.12, down from £5.60.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of another campaign group, Clean Up Gambling, also fears for people who have lost a small fortune.
'Families will be ripped apart. Lives and livelihoods will be destroyed and at a time when people can least afford it with the pandemic,' he said.
Zarb-Cousin likens Football Index to a pyramid scheme, which has to keep attracting new participants to generate revenue to pay out dividends and still make a profit.
He points the finger at the Gambling Commission for licensing the company to operate the scheme.
'People treated this as if it would be around forever and there was no reason to think it would not be because it was licensed.
'It is a complete failure of regulation and there is no mechanism for consumer redress. It should never have been licensed in the first place.
'Lots of people have lost their life savings because they treated it as an investment platform.
'It's like a pyramid scheme without a stream of new customers to subsidise the dividends to existing customers, it is not sustainable.'
Despite the looming crisis, Football Index told users recently that the company had, in its five-year history, 'never been in a stronger financial position than today' encouraging punters to believe the site was in a healthy position.
After the crash, Sportsmail was contacted by a large number of customers, many of whom share similar experiences of losing large sums of money on the platform.
One person, who chose to remain anonymous, said that their first year on Football Index resulted in a £30,000 profit - before they then invested 'pretty much everything' they had.
On Friday, before the announcement, they were £3,000 down on their deposits - but are now estimating to be around £60,000 down instead. They have deleted the app.
'I've always saved money since a very early age,' they added. 'Now I'm 27, and everything I've saved is now pretty much gone.'
Another said: 'For the 10 per cent like myself who have been in long-term, our money has been trapped. It's such a loss. We would stand to lose, in my case, £40,000.
'My money is still in there, but it's at zero basically.'
Sportsmail was told by one user that their portfolio last September was worth £16,000. After the share prices fell, it is now lying at a benchmark value of -£900.
Football Index told Sportsmail: 'Football Index is a gambling platform and has never claimed to be a savings product. The bets that users make on Football Index are not financial investments.
'Gambling is a tightly regulated industry, and we remain committed to being a responsible gambling operator. To this end, we include safer gambling resources on our platform and carry safer gambling messaging in our advertisements. Football Index has always operated with the welfare of its users at the heart of what it does.
'The changes announced on Friday are the latest in a long line of changes to the ways in which users can trade their bets and be rewarded for their football knowledge. The recent changes were made with a view to ensuring that Football Index remains sustainable long-term.'
The platform said previously that a cash balance held by any account would have no guarantee that all funds will be repaid.
The government is in the process of reviewing gambling laws. A review is due to report later this month.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com