FanDuel founder Nigel Eccles has launched his latest venture – the blockchain-based sports betting exchange BetDEX – four years after his departure from the sports betting operator.
BetDEX is a platform which aims to marry cryptocurrency with sports, branding itself as the world’s first decentralised sports betting exchange.
The company’s ambitions are to “deliver a global sports betting protocol that enables users to trade bets at high speed and minimal cost with zero counterparty risk”.
Eccles said: “Starting a company means getting to pick who you get to hang out with for next 5-10 years. Because of that I’m really excited today to share I’m founding a new company, BetDEX Labs Inc., with two of my favorite former FanDuel colleagues, Varun Sudhakar and Stuart Tonner.
“In addition, we are excited to have Andy Murray, Pawel Witek, Drew Alexander Baird Spencer and Ewan Meldrum join us. It is going to be one incredible journey.”
Eccles stepped down as FanDuel CEO in 2017, with Matt King stepping in as his replacement. He went on to take legal action following Paddy Power Betfair’s acquisition of the company, in a deal that created Flutter.
Eccles claimed that the $465m (£367m/€411m) valuation of FanDuel in the acquisition did not take into account the potential impact of the legalization of sports betting on the company. A December 2020 deal in which Flutter acquired an additional 37.2% stake in the business suggested FanDuel was worth more than $11bn at the time.
