Watford’s digital equity offer has now entered its final fortnight with a total of £3,889,428 definitely raised.

The money invested has been creeping up since the new season started, but still less than £50,000 has been added in the last seven weeks.

The amount that has actually been generated and invested in the scheme can be tracked in real time on the website of Seedrs (seedrs.com/watford-fc), which is the English arm of the American company Republic, who are Watford’s partners in the venture.

The amount in dollars shown on republic.com/watfordfc is higher because it reflects not only the sum actually invested but also adds in commitments/pledges that have not yet come to fruition.

So, although the Republic shows a figure of $6,863,463, that number includes money that has not yet actually been invested.

It means there is roughly £1.3m which has been pledged to the share issue, but not actually been received – and it may not ever actually materialise as a pledge is not a binding investment.

The £3.889m raised so far has been generated by 2,954 investors, meaning the average amount invested by each investor is around £1,320.

When the scheme was launched at the start of last month, Watford made shares worth £17.5m available for purchase, which represented 10% of the club’s total shares.

The digital equity scheme flew out of the traps and raised more than £3.7m inside two weeks.

However, new investment has slowed significantly, meaning 98% of the funds raised through the digital investment scheme arrived in the opening fortnight.

Similarly, the number of new investors has also dipped since the digital equity offer was launched early last month.

There are now 12 days until the digital offer is due to close, and unless there are several lumpy investments to come in the closing few days, then the original share allocation worth £17.5m is very unlikely to be taken.

When the scheme was launched, the prospectus said: “Watford FC plans to continue investing across the squad and club infrastructure to attain promotion and then to sustain that success through a continued presence in the Premier League.

“Thanks to the development of new young players and planned additions to the squad, the Club believes the team has the potential to gain promotion to the Premier League during the 2024/25 season.”