A NEW eGaming company in the island is claiming to offer something a little different.
Instead of playing casino games such as roulette or blackjack, people can go online to dabble in the global marketplace.
GoldenBoys is a financial betting website which offers simple games that do not require a detailed knowledge of the financial markets.
Spokesman Martin Linham said: ‘There’s no reason why the general public shouldn’t be able to make money on the financial markets. Our games are designed to make winning on the stock markets easy for anyone.’
He told Business News: ‘You don’t have to be a financial wizard to have a go. The idea is to have fun.’
After registering on the site, players can bet whether the market will go up or down in the next five to 30 minutes in the simple ‘up and down’ game, or match three stocks on a virtual scratch card to win.
And the ‘Millionaires’ game offers the chance to win £1,000,000. Players have to correctly predict the last digit of the official closing price of eight different world markets to hit the jackpot payout of £1 million! One draw is conducted every Friday.
Father of two Mr Linham, 43, who lives in Baldrine, said he is confident GoldenBoys will catch on and as business expands through an ‘aggressive growth strategy’ it is hoped more staff can be taken on. The business is currently based in Britannia House, on the corner of Athol Street and St George’s Street,Douglas.
Mr Linham said there is an affiliate management team in London while the founder of the business is said to prefer to keep a low profile. The business has been in the planning for around 14 months.
The site has already had a ‘soft’ launch but Mr Linham is busily preparing for the official live launch in a London venue on Tuesday, April 24.
He said that this week, in readiness for the London unveiling, players can win a competition to live like a millionaire for a weekend.
Mr Linham said island company SMP Partners have been involved with helping the business set up in the island and Domicilium, internet service providers, in Castletown, are looking after the technical side involved in hosting the site.
He said GoldenBoys is regulated by the IoM Gambling Supervision Commission and standards of customer protection are extremely high.
Mr Linham said the island was much respected in the eGaming industry.
He is originally from Bristol but settled in the island in 1993 with his Manx wife Michelle.
He said he had pursued a career in banking and accountancy before this new venture.
As part of its publicity launch the business carried out a survey of more than 2,000 British adults which revealed significant gaps in understanding of the financial markets.
Almost a quarter (24 per cent) could not identify that Greece was in the Eurozone, given a list of four countries. Twelve per cent selected Switzerland and Turkey was chosen by seven per cent.
Some 44 per cent couldn’t define a bull market and only 53 per cent correctly named London as having the world’s most international stock exchange. Ninety six per cent didn’t know the name given to the day when the markets crashed in 1987 (Black Monday) and 70 per cent don’t know what a corporate bond is.
The message from GoldenBoys’ spokesman Mr Linham is that it does not really matter how little you know about the world’s markets to play the games.
goldenboysbet.com