We generally don’t post about demo trading contests, but we are making an exception here due to the regional impact of the competition.
Admiral Markets has launched their 2013 round of ForexBall demo competitions. As in the past, ForexBall is a series of weekly demo trading competitions. This year they have upped the ante from 2012’s total prize money of $70,000 to a whopping $541,000 that will be distributed throughout the year.
Demo contests are a popular model for brokers to acquire new customers, with competitions becoming more competitive between firms, specifically, in Central and Eastern Europe. While the region was initially dominated by Polish XTB in the mid-2000’s, Estonian Admiral Markets has become a strong rival, as they have used similar tactics to XTB. To achieve rapid market share, Admiral has conducted a combination of aggressive demo competitions around its ForexBall brand along with opening local offices throughout Central and Eastern European nations. This has allowed them to successfully expand throughout the region and even successfully make inroads in XTB’s home Poland market.
Admiral’s half a million competition comes after XTB held a larger €1,000,000 contest in 2011. Although less than half the size of XTB’s 2011 prizes, Admiral’s announcement occurs as Forex brokers have seen margins on trading declining as competition among firms has led to falling spreads. As such, it will be interesting to see whether XTB launches another trading competition to rival that of Admiral’s, or will another Central or Eastern European broker make a large gamble in the region.
