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A festive return for the #FootballIndex Monday thread. After our discussion with @FiGuide and @Sporting_Panda on last week's FigCast Extra, the FIG Discord asked me what I would do as an experienced leader if I was given the CEO job at Football Index.
I thought I would share the answer with you today for your views. I would convene an all staff meeting with every employee at Football Index and address them as follows:
1. Things are bad right now. This doesn't mean that things are terminal but everyone is going to need to play their part in helping to fix this.
We have a great concept and had a wonderful opening 5 years; the next 5 years are going to need to be more focused, more considered and more strategic. Everyone needs to take more pride in what they do.
2. Our amazing concept is not going to be enough to get us out of this situation. The mechanic we have designed will be our demise unless we do something to fix it. We have two major interdependent problems; lack of liquidity and low prices.
If prices don't rise back towards all time highs then we will not be able to generate enough revenue to cover our dividend commitments and will be stuck where we are today forever.
3. We need to ask the question - what is in our gift as a business and within the regulatory environment to bring about the required change?
4a. Our top strategic objective should be to stimulate price growth. We are going to set aside £x million to buy open sell offers up gradually and create upwards price momentum in an unannounced manner.
We will publicly state a commitment to maintain a bid floor (IS) at 25-35% of market price to ensure confidence for long term holders and create the right conditions for market makers to enter.
4b. Our second priority is to provide greater incentive to hold shares long term. We will commission an independent external review of our dividend and prize structure to ensure we meet this objetive.
We will finally provide clarity on "the three year rule" by announcing a new policy that bets do no expire at the end of three years; they simply stop being eligible for dividends (unless manually refreshed)
4c. We will seek to reset our relationship with loyal customers throughout 2021, starting with an apology for the management decisions in the second half of 2020.
We will offer a goodwill gesture to those that have left money in the platform during this time which will also stimulate market growth. We will own our mistakes and learn from them, embedding this as a key part of our organisational culture.
This is not an exhaustive list of interventions and won't fix the product overnight. But it will lay the foundations for the next stage of our journey as an organisation with a view to longer term success.
