Golden Boys betting re-launch?

It appears from an article in IOM Today this week that the Isle of Man licensed Golden Boys Bet.com, a finance pool betting platform offering players the opportunity to bet on the closing position of financial assets like indices, foreign exchange and commodities on various financial markets, is being re-launched.

Originally launched in July 2010, the site allowed visitors to play for free or for as little as $5, with the construction of a vibrant community a major objective, and tutorials for users.

Back then, founder Philippe Darwiche said: “This is a site for anyone who enjoys the thrill of placing a bet and waiting to find out whether it will make a return. We have designed Golden Boys Bet with simplicity in mind, therefore knowledge of the finance markets is not necessary.

“As Golden Boys Bet develops additional ‘game’ variations will be added to the site giving existing financial bettors the first opportunity to try the new games as they are launched.”

This week, company spokesman Martin Linham said: “Our games are designed to make winning on the stock markets easy for anyone.”

The site is now offering a ‘Millionaires’ game that offers the chance to win GBP 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, with one draw conducted every Friday.

Golden Boys Bet staffers re-launched the site Tuesday, still under the aegis of the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission.

Part of the re-launch publicity was a survey of more than 2,000 British adults which revealed significant gaps in understanding of the financial markets.

Almost a quarter (24 percent) could not identify that Greece was in the Eurozone, given a list of four countries. Twelve percent selected Switzerland, and Turkey was chosen by seven percent.

Some 44 percent couldn’t define a bull market and only 53 percent correctly named London as having the world’s most international stock exchange.

96 percent didn’t know the name given to the day when the markets crashed in 1987 (Black Monday) and 70 percent don’t know what a corporate bond is.