Following on from the last blog on Player Stats, I felt it led nicely onto discussing the rise in Football Trading Sites, which in basic terms is just where stock exchanges meet Football.
Football Index was really the pioneer in this as as far as I’m aware. They were one of the first of it’s kind in terms of allowing people to buy shares in footballers. I was very much late to the party with FI as I joined only about 6 months ago.
In that time my portfolio is still around 27% up during this time from my initial investment of £250. That is a rather tame amount compared to a lot of traders on the platform but I don’t like to commit too much money to one platform in an effort to be diverse with my finances.
The way I like to use FI is to focus on sub 50p players with room for massive expansion. This has served me well so far as my figures show. The beauty of the platform is there are so many ways to play. You can focus on high end market players with less risk that tend to slowly rise or you can focus on Dividends and buy a portfolio tailored to players that perform well against the matrix and collect dividends often. Or you can even focus on players that are often talked about in the press and collect media dividends which is obviously a key strategy with football currently suspended. This is but just some of the possible ways to use Football Index. I tend to look at it as a long term bet such as an ante post bet as when you buy shares in a player its a long term investment that I wouldn’t expect to sell or ‘cash out’ for a prolonged period.
This brings me onto the next major trading app I use for Football Trading which is Sport Stack. Whereas I was late to the party with FI, I have got in nice and early with SS. The major difference between the platforms is that when you buy shares in a player on SS, it is with the intention of selling him mostly either during or at full time of that players next match.
This is because Sport Stack works differently in the fact it allows you to buy and even sell players at current offered prices before and even inplay during a match. So for example lets say Dominic Calvert Lewin is 40p pre match vs Arsenal you can purchase shares in him if you feel his price will be higher than 40p during or after the match or even sell shares in him if you think the opposite. The players prices inplay are assessed against a specific matrix with live stats from Opta, so for starting in a game a player gets 25p and can either go up or down from there so if they take a shot for example that will be + a few pence or if they get tackled that will be – a few pence. So if you bought DCL and he has a good game having a few shots and scoring a goal he will be worth more than the 40p you bought him for so you can either sell in play for profit if you feel he wont do anything further in the game or wait for full time for your trade to be settled against the full time price. Obviously selling or ‘shorting’ players works in the opposite way so you are hoping a player has a bad game and is worth less than what you sold him for, its assessed against the same matrix. Goalkeepers obviously work slightly differently as they are assessed on saves and goals conceded rather than shots or goals scored but the principle is the same.
So where as FI is a long term trade, SS is very much a short term trade. I personally love both platforms for differing reasons. Prior to live football stopping i was 600% up on my initial deposit with Sport Stack and was having great fun as it gave me a bit of interest on Premier League games and Champions League matches when I was trading a player in that game.
I tend to look for players that love to get involved in games and don’t shy off the ball. Or players for example that like multiple shots in a game or goalkeepers that are likely to be busy in a game as even if they concede they will make points through saves. Or if I’m looking for a short I look for players I feel the market has over priced or that I think will have a bad game for what ever reason. Im very particular about prices so if I feel I have missed a price on a player and the profit margin is too razor thin I wont make the trade.
I feel both are excellent additions to my portfolio and perfectly marry up with my love of stats and football.
The Percentage Game 