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the first regulated sports investment fund?

I toyed with doing something like this a few years ago but never took it any further. It was always going to need the backing of a financial group to get it off the ground.

Regulated sports betting fund unveiled

Investors seeking uncorrelated, “economy-proof” returns are being offered a new asset class – trading on sports betting exchanges.

The Galileo Fund, which will be launched this week by London-based Centaur Corporate, claims to be the world’s first regulated such vehicle.

It will trade in sports such as football, racing and tennis on Betfair and other online exchanges that facilitate so-called in-running betting, hosting markets on events already in progress.

Good luck to them, I'd much prefer to invest my money in a fund like that, than one susceptible to major crashes in the economy.

ADDENDUM

But are they the right company to launch such a fund? I believe this is the same firm that dabbles in teaching people to trade. Having done that for a few years with Betfair, that's a precarious position to be in, teaching people to eliminate risk but also to make an earn out of it for the business. My Education programme was criticised by Harry Findlay in a Racing UK interview once (words to the effect of "they'd be much better off being taught by me to be a gambler"), and to an extent I agreed with his but a company can't go out and encourage punters to take risks, then sit back and take the profits as said punters go broke. There's an ethical balance between whetting someone's appetite to go their own way and learn more, and just forcing it down their throat and having to deal with complaints when they inevitably got it wrong due to going back to their old, unprofitable habits.

Centaur have also been known for glossy sales pitches and over the years they have also been a tipping and syndication service, and fell foul of the Advertising Standards Authority at one stage...

CentaurGlobal

ASA judgment

Again, good luck to them, but they need to be more transparent if they are to succeed in the financial world. Still a small investment with one's eyes wide open to the risks wouldn't be such a bad thing, but he who takes out a second mortgage for it is asking for trouble...
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