The Football INDEX is taking football gambling by storm with nearly 50,000 users actively involved in trading the biggest names in football.

The Football INDEX was launched by founder Adam Cole, though his company BetIndex, in 2015 and it is where you can trade on the top 200 footballers – building a portfolio by buying futures on a player, with the prices varying in the exact same way as to which a conventional stockmarket operates.

But instead of buying and looking at a FTSE 100 company – you might buy a future in Cristiano Ronaldo or Marcus Rashford.

Buy low, sell high – is an adage everyone knows, and that is the aim in the Football INDEX.

We are ardent fans at TheGamblingTimes.com – we include a Football INDEX one to follow in all our previews and have a Football INDEXcomment on any major transfer story we do and have a new weekly column with top Football INDEX trader Louis Moore.

So we are delighted to have been able to catch with Adam for an exclusive chat, and firstly we needed to know how he came up with the idea.

“I was at a social gathering and some people were discussing the stock market. A friend turned to me and said  “British Gas, BT and Tesco are so boring… I wish I could trade a bit of Robbie Williams”  And that was it!” he revealed.

“Essentially the idea was to have a celebrity stockmarket, but we thought football would be a good starting point. I realised that she was absolutely right.

“Not many people care about publicly listed companies, or know anything about them. They certainly will never know more than a trader at Goldman Sachs, but everyone is passionate and has an opinion about football.”

Happy Birthday to our CEO @AdamColeFI! Take advantage of his Bday offer get up to £1,000 bonus cash, opt-in now! https://t.co/k6t689EEV0 pic.twitter.com/beux4JyD7R

— Football INDEX (@FootballIndexUK) April 25, 2017

The Football INDEX operates using a complex algorithm together with other aspects such as the media to generate dividends and their ‘Buzz’ section which generates interest and helps point people towards which players are ‘trending’ or making the news – although it is buying/selling futures and the demand within the game itself that determines the price of any future.

“We monitor the UK media and layer on some sentiment analysis to how the media are reporting each player,” revealed Cole.

“If you own shares in the most popular player who dominates the news each day we pay out a 5p dividend.

“It took some time to develop and we want to keep improving it. We may add some Opta data in the summer for the new season. But essentially we use media as each day we can produce a winner irrespective of if there are football matches taking place or not. Whereas performance data requires a match to take place.”

Football INDEX operates in the UK but Cole admits that plans are afoot looking across the world as to where they may go next as well as other areas of interest such as different sports and fields – like celebrities.

“I see the platform developing into new territories, sports, and ultimately celebrity. This will be a combination of freemium and gambling product depending on what we’re allowed to do in each territory,” he said.

“We could have different indices (Premier League, La Liga, Bundisliga etc) whereas at the moment we have one list of the top 200 footballers, I would like to see all footballers ultimately available to buy on our platform.”

It is clear Adam is hugely committed to the INDEX he has masterminded, but he admits he does not a chance to play.

“I would love to [play] as I think it’s genuinely the most rewarding and entertaining opportunity this sector has ever seen. However, I don’t do things by half, so rather than actively trade I’m just relentlessly focused on building the success of this wonderful platform.”

Football INDEX is a stockmarket game where players, known as Traders, take a position on the “future success” of footballers with real money. Sign up now and start winning!