I think this video has been made honestly - but it overplays the risks. Players dying, moving to China or getting career ending injuries is really very rare indeed - especially amongst the top players.

It is right to say that risk has increased overall though for sure, and it is only right that divs should increase as well to reflect that. FI's reduced liabilities on IS should support that.

I do feel sorry for people who mainly played the bottom end in the past - but dividend earning players, and those who have the potential to become them, are still valuable, and can still be sold on to others - usually with significant capital appreciation.

There is also the element of untapped potential that FI has. It's a fun game and has some of the appeal of Fantasy Football. It's nowhere near as embedded as FF - nor as embedded as other forms of betting. The ceiling in this country is high- let alone with other territories too.

There is a long way to go for this project and whilst this is a rocky few months the long term future of the platform is bright. However it is imperative for the growth of the platform that existing port holders are kept happy and I am sure FI are very much aware of that.

It's clearly a hybrid isn't it. It's ludicrous to call it pure gambling because under all but the most unlikely situations you don't risk losing your stake, and most people here have made money which does not apply at the bookies.

Equally it's not as protected as investing in stocks and shares - the risk profile is higher.

That's reflected in the size of my own investment - it's much more than I would ever 'gamble' in the traditional sense, but also a lot less than I might put into the stock market.

This is boring. Yes, spreads are wide on a lot of players, paper profit is decreasing due to people (sensibly) market listing large swathes of their portfolio in case they sell so as to either reinvest now via ME or hold out for order books.

At the same time, there's an excellent promotion running for the next two months, loads of gold days coming up and a fully functioning OB system on the way in the coming weeks.

If you suddenly need your money immediately I accept it's not great. But FI has never been that sort of place - it's more like a 90+ notice account where you take your money out over a period of time.

I feel much more reassured following the current promotion. FI will do what it takes to support the market - it's just an odd transitional phase at present.

We are set for long term growth with this announcement. I will probably put a decent wedge more in over the next couple of weeks so a lack of acceleration is fine by me. It's a gamechanging announcement. The market was overpriced before - now a lot of players can now make their full price back in divs, and overall I think the market is probably at least 50% undervalued.

Congrats on shoehorning 'Chelsea' and 'history' into the same sentence, tough to do ;)

Yeah tbh @MrWh1te your chat is tiresome and myopic. Lots of good, balanced contributors to this forum but your apocalyptic pronouncements and childish name calling is really grinding.

Personally I think when sell orders come in it will be accompanied by a significant promotion to get things moving and optimistic again. That will ensure value for port holders, allow people to jump off who wish to do so, and set us up very nicely indeed for the season ahead. That might even be why the dividend increase was perhaps less than some were expecting - because they need to keep something back for the real big moment.

I don't know that of course - but it seems far more likely than 'the end of FI'.

@Londoner not sure there is any evidence that Gomes is in the same league as most those.

@Coriolanus it's interesting - I don't see FI like you do. You take as your assumption that the bet is just 3 year divs and excludes the sale of the asset. But I'm unsure why. The beauty of FI as an expanding platform is that, generally speaking, you get divs AND sell the asset, usually at a higher price than you bought it.

There remains a massive amount of space for FI to expand into in terms of attracting new users, I don't see that equation changing any time soon. But it is imperative to keep existing users happy and I am sure they will 👍

No way is it the end of Football Index. Football will return and it's an excellent platform offering better returns than most other investments. I can see it being an odd few months but I would hope most traders can see the bigger picture here.

Surprised to see all the haters here - I personally thought it was an interesting 90 mins and I learned new things. Not sure what people were expecting? Thanks FIG!

@MrWh1te where has he said this?

@R9inter I do agree with that. It's been a rough 6 months but OBs have been in the pipeline a while and it was never going to be easy. Changes from here should be positive and incremental rather than revolutionary as this move has been.

The truth is that FI as it used to be was not a financially viable model for them. They were definitely paying out a lot to grow the product. We are still in that growth phase but the model is now more viable for them.

I'm happy with that as long as the divs and marketing are good and they work hard to retain confidence of the user base. Understandably that's been shaken recently so they need to work hard to get it back and restore faith.

@Archer22 as a Villa fan I wish I agreed with you!

This summer has been exceptional due to Covid etc, but unless we finish in the top 8 this season which seems v improbable then I suspect he may depart for European football next summer. He loves Villa, but he's ambitious too.

I think they have been generous. I would estimate that under the new structure I am now likely to get the vast majority of my initial investment back in divs alone over the three years - and that's assuming no further increases. So even in a 0% CA scenario I should be able to double my money.

The bets have intrinsic value. FI just needs to work on a way to help people better understand what that is. The problem here is poor implementation, confusion and panic rather than anything fundamental.

@FootballArgos Grealish is now v cheap. I've topped up. He's an excellent player, may go to the Euros, is media friendly, Villa will likely be better this season, and he'll still be linked away next summer (and may well move).

I think this is probably true and that's why the market makers are so important. We need more of them in asap. Feels like FI know this though, they are referred to in the comms frequently.

Great post Fletch. Wholeheartedly agree with all of it.

We do need FI to come out with something tomorrow AM about this, what they are doing about it and how they will avoid it happening again. Confidence is key here and it will take a while to rebuild - even as prices start to rebound.

The bargains out there now are outstanding if you have the nerve.

I've taken the plunge. 20p divs from the off, good chance of top def and maybe even star man - which would be an immediate 36p return. Of course he will drop a fair bit after today but that's not a bad start - especially with West Ham up next.

I also watched a fair bit of the game today and he looked very good.

Moved to a PB league from obscurity

Have taken this opportunity to top up. I still think he's off.