FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles closes his crypto casino to sell its AI dealer
Nigel Eccles, co-founder of FanDuel, shut down his crypto casino BetHog to sell its AI blackjack dealer to other gaming operators. His team built the dealer in-house, and it banters with players and remembers them. Eccles says it proved ten times more popular than the live version. He predicts that eighty percent of live dealers will be AI-powered within three to five years.
Eccles puts the live dealer business at fifteen billion dollars, with roughly thirty to forty thousand people working as dealers. For casinos, those dealers are a heavy operating cost. The case for the AI product rests on that payroll no longer leaving the business. Eccles argues the savings go toward reaching players who found human dealers intimidating. He grants that the best human dealers will keep their demand.
Source: Entrepreneur · October 7, 2026