No extra time for gamblers—the distribution of the Football Index trust fund (Re BetIndex Ltd)

Article summary

Private Client analysis: BetIndex Ltd, which operated the online sports betting platform Football Index, entered into administration. The company held a ‘client account’ on the terms of a deed of trust which was intended to provide protection to its customers in the event of its insolvency. The court held that the trust fund should be distributed as soon as it was practicable to do so following the date of the administrators’ appointment, that the customers who should receive distributions were those to whom the company owed money at that date and that any surplus left in the fund should not be retained to meet claims by customers accruing after that date. The case concerns the collapse of a high profile gambling company; it provides guidance as to the interpretation of a deed of trust containing wording mandated by the UK Gambling Commission, and it addresses in one decision a number of points which frequently arise in...