Sports betting giant FanDuel is seeking arbitration with co-founder and former chief executive officer Nigel Eccles, whom the company accuses of “repeatedly and flagrantly” breaching a separation agreement in 2017.
In a letter sent to a New York judge earlier this week, FanDuel lawyers say Eccles actively recruited and assisted plaintiffs in a suit against the company. As such, the company has argued that he should be required to return the money he was paid as part of a deal.
Eccles, who believes that private equity firms like Shamrock Capital Advisors and KKR conspired to squeeze out many of FanDuel’s original investors by undervaluing the company, continues to stand his ground.
As a result of his alleged breach of separation, FanDuel is seeking to reclaim around $8 million from Eccles through arbitrative measures.
“The reality, as their new documents show, is that after Lead Plaintiff Nigel Eccles mismanaged (FanDuel) into the ground, the Director Defendants were forced to step in, pursue a buy-out that Plaintiffs had facilitated, and accept the highest available offer — indeed, the only lifeline that would save FDL from collapse,” the filing reads. “As a result, Plaintiffs’ claims all fail.”
Attorneys for FanDuel have argued that Eccles’s mismanagement led to over $232 million in accumulated losses in 2017 and that the lawsuit is simply his way of trying to save his image
Since his departure, Eccles has started several businesses. Shortly after leaving FanDuel in November 2017, Eccles co-founded Flick, a video and social streaming platform. In May 2020, Eccles helped create StarStock, an online platform that allows users to buy and sell sports trading cards. The company later added NBA star Trae Young as an investor.
Eccles has also launched two crypto-gaming ventures. He first launched a Web3 betting exchange, BetDEX, and later, with fellow FanDuel co-founder Rob Jones, launched a crypto casino and sportsbook, BetHog.
BetHog is seeking to develop new casino formats, built for fair play on the Solana blockchain.
In the arbitration filing, lawyers say that “Mr. Eccles slapped the hand extended to him by helping over 100 other plaintiffs bring two different lawsuits against FDI and the KKR/Shamrock Investors, that seek hundreds of millions of dollars in purported damages arising out of the very acquisition that saved FanDuel from the mess Mr. Eccles had created.”
FanDuel was acquired in 2018 by European bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair, which later rebranded as Flutter Entertainment. The deal, which came just a week after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 law banning sports betting nationwide, saw Betfair take on 61% of the combined U.S. business.
FanDuel, together with DraftKings, is comfortably among the top two sports betting operators in the United States industry. In 2024, it generated $5.7 billion in revenue, a 38% increase over the previous year, and $507 million in adjusted EBITDA.
