On what resembled a computerised trading floor, traders in shirts and ties laid bets from clients over the telephone, only instead of it being bets on whether the price of gold or shares in BT would go up or down, this could be total goals in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.
Based out of an office in Kennington, South London, the new business was headed up by chairman Compton Hellyer – a well-spoken ex-City futures trader and sports fan – who assembled a team of former financial traders to create, price up and manage markets. As it happened, Sporting Index was primarily looking to disrupt sports betting rather than political betting with its product adapted from the world of finance, but a bet is still a bet. A ‘buy’ of the number of seats the Conservatives would win at the 1992 General Election was the first ever spread bet struck with Sporting Index, on April Fool’s Day that year.
