Nasdaq strikes platform supply deal with Football Index

US financial services giant Nasdaq Inc has announced a deal with Football Index, to provide the player stock market with a trading engine allowing customers to buy and sell shares in professional footballers.

Nasdaq will provide Football Index with a flexible, cloud-based trading solution that will allow users to trade stocks based on the expected future performance of football players.

These customers receive dividends based on statistics such as goals, assists and clean sheets, with each player's share price rising and falling based on supply and demand. 

Paul McKeown, senior vice president and head of marketplace operators and new markets at Nasdaq said that the deal is part of the company’s move into many areas outside of stock markets.

“The concept of what a market is has radically evolved over the past few years, something that Nasdaq as an operator and builder of markets has played an important part of first-hand,” McKeown said.

“We are focused on democratizing marketplace technology by offering essential components of matching engine technology traditionally used by financial markets, and bringing the capabilities to a cross-asset, cross-industry environment via the cloud,” he continued. “Football Index will use our matching engine technology to provide their clients with a platform to revolutionize how fixed-odds betting operates.”

Football Index founder and chief executive Adam Cole described Nasdaq as a “legendary brand”.

“We're very proud and excited to work with them to provide our order matching service, which is the powerhouse of any exchange,” he said. “Football Index has come a very long way in a short period of time. Our relationship with Nasdaq is another major step in our journey to establish Football Index as a world-class exchange, worthy of the world's top footballers that are traded on it.”