THE husband and wife team behind Scottish technology star FanDuel have moved permanently to the US from Edinburgh as the business eyes further international expansion following its UK launch earlier this year.

Chief executive Nigel Eccles and non-executive director Lesley Eccles have made the switch to New York to be closer to the business’s main market.

Although it was set up in Edinburgh nine years ago and half of its 350 staff are based there, Fanduel’s customers are predominantly based in the US, with the technology provider’s games built largely around the players in America’s NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL (National Football League).

Ms Eccles, who stood down as FanDuel’s executive vice-president of marketing to coincide with making the move, said she and Mr Eccles decided to relocate after they “became like ships that passed in the night”.

“We were both having to travel more and more and a lot of my time was being spent in Los Angeles,” she said.

“Looking back we should have moved earlier but it’s never the right time from a personal perspective – our oldest child is 12 so it was a now or never situation.”

Ms Eccles said she had decided to step back from her marketing role in part because the focus of the company’s marketing function has shifted in recent months and in part because she did not want to work full-time after moving her family across the Atlantic.

“I always said there was no way I could move to New York if I was still working full-time,” she said. “I’m also on the board of Enterprise Scotland and I’m an adviser to Tech Nation UK - I’m looking for more of a portfolio approach and want to reclaim a bit more of my life.”

Mr and Ms Eccles founded FanDuel with chief product officer Tom Griffiths, head of design Rob Jones and lead engineer Chris Stafford in 2009.

Since Ms Eccles stepped down from her marketing role, control of that function has passed to Los Angeles-based chief marketing officer Mark Irace.

Until now FanDuel has built its brand in the US, where six million people play its games, through marketing campaigns that have seen it form partnerships with half the teams in both the NBA and the NFL.

Although Ms Eccles said the firm still has much to do in the US, where the total potential market numbers 50 million people, the brand has become so well known that the emphasis has shifted onto other areas.

“I built up a very strong marketing team last year and as we moved into this year the focus shifted from marketing and advertising and is now on improving the product and getting through the legal situation we have faced in various states,” she said.

Along with other fantasy sports websites FanDuel has faced difficulties in the US because certain states classed their games as being games of chance, which are not legal, rather than games of skill, which are.

However, earlier this year Indiana, Virginia and Massachusetts lifted restrictions on such businesses operating and in August New York followed suit.

Outside the US, FanDuel launched in the UK in August this year and has so far paid out £100,000 in prize money to British-based players.

Ms Eccles said the business is now looking at where it could expand to next.

“There are a lot of choices,” she said. “With Europe every country has a different jurisdiction and we have to look carefully at the laws in every jurisdiction,” she said.

“Fantasy football is huge in Italy, and Germany and Australia are also interesting.

“There are so many options that we could look at – and we are starting to look at – but we need to make sure it makes sense and at the same time there’s still so much upside in the US.”

Last year FanDuel launched a base in Glasgow, which is staffed by developers, with the office now home to 25 people.