FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles unveils decentralised betting exchange

Nigel Eccles, the ex-CEO and co-founder of US DFS heavyweight FanDuel, has revealed that his latest venture is a decentralised betting exchange called BetDEX. The 46-year-old Northern Irishman has co-founded and installed himself as chairman of the start-up, while his former colleague at FanDuel, Varun Sudhakar, is a co-founder and CEO. Stuart Tonner, who was head of engineering at FanDuel between 2010 and 2018 from the company’s Glasgow office, completes the trio as co-founder and CTO. In addition, former Scotland-based tech staffers at FanDuel, including Pawel Witek, Drew Alexander Baird Spencer, Ewan Meldrum and Andy Murray, have also been hired. Employees are mainly concentrated in Glasgow, Edinburgh and New York. “Starting a company means getting to pick who you get to hang out with for the next five to 10 years,” Eccles wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Because of that I’m really excited today to share I’m founding a new company with two of my favourite former FanDuel colleagues, Varun Sudhakar and Stuart Tonner.” Eccles added that his exchange aims to bring crypto to sports betting and “revolutionise the industry for consumers”.

BetDEX has been built on the Solana blockchain, which the betting start-up says can deliver high speeds and low transaction costs compared with other blockchains. First released in 2019, Solana is said to be able to handle more than 50,000 transactions per second and that the average cost per transaction is $0.00025. Solana uses the cryptocurrency SOL. The co-founders insist BetDEX is the world’s first truly decentralised betting exchange, with bets matched on the blockchain involving an auditable escrow contract. Early 2022 has been earmarked for a Beta launch of the new exchange. The creation of BetDEX is the latest tech venture for Eccles some 12 years after he launched FanDuel alongside his wife, Lesley. The firm went on to become the leader in the exploding US DFS space and achieved unicorn status with a valuation north of $1bn. A planned merger with rival DraftKings was blocked on anti-trust grounds in 2017 and, a year later, Paddy Power Betfair (now Flutter) acquired a majority stake in the business before expanding into sports betting with the brand following PASPA’s repeal. Eccles departed in 2017 and co-founded Flick, a sports chat app connecting influencers with fans that raised $5m in a Series A funding round in late 2020. While Eccles is still CEO, Flick has since pivoted to become a decentralised social network.