TWO co-founders of daily fantasy sports business FanDuel are soon to formally launch their new venture Flick after shifting its focus in the development stage from eSports to podcasting.
Former FanDuel chief executive Nigel Eccles and ex-design head Rob Jones launched Flick at the beginning of last year with the initial plan of creating an online community based around gaming.
However, Mr Eccles, who is based in New York, said the pair took the decision to move away from that space after discovering it was already well served by existing platforms.
READ MORE: Final FanDuel founder quits to join former CEO in eSports firm
“We’ve always been focused on helping people create a community around content,” he said.
“The original focus was on gamer content but we discovered there was a lot more interest from other groups.
“While gamers had platforms, podcasters didn’t – they could have one and a half million listeners but no way for those listeners to talk to each other.
“I’ve been interested in podcasts for years but I didn’t really connect the community element. With FanDuel, one of the great things we were able to do was built a fantastic community then build a business case around that.”
Although Flick is still in the testing stage, around 100 podcasters have already signed up to it, with their listeners joining groups that allow them to interact with other listeners.
Mr Eccles said the intention is for the product to launch publicly before the end of this year, with the next stage being to allow podcasters to offer listeners premium subscriptions that feature additional content.
Although Flick is incorporated in the US, Mr Jones, who is the business’s chief product officer, is based in Edinburgh.
READ MORE: Former FanDuel chief raises $4m for new venture Flick
He is supported there by a team of eight developers while Mr Eccles has a team of two working alongside him in New York, where the focus is on bringing podcasters on board.
Mr Eccles said the business, which raised $4 million from US-based institutional investors last year, expects to raise more finance in the next year with the intention being to continue growing the development team.
The business would then look to create a web-based version of its product, which is currently only available as a mobile app.
Like Mr Eccles and Mr Jones, FanDuel’s three other co-founders have all launched new ventures since leaving the business they founded a decade ago.
Lesley Eccles, who was head of marketing and a director at FanDuel, launched relationship-based app Relish last year and closed a $2.2m funding round last October.
As with Flick, while Ms Eccles is based in the US she has built her development team in Edinburgh, with eight people currently working for the business there.
Former technology head Chris Stafford, meanwhile, set up Edinburgh-based IT consultancy Amber 80 at the end of 2017 and former chief product officer Tom Griffiths co-founded San Francisco-based online management training business Hone last year.
Ms Eccles and Mr Stafford both left FanDuel in 2016. Mr Eccles, Mr Jones and Mr Griffiths left at the end of 2017 after being sidelined by the firm’s private equity backers when a planned merger with rival DraftKings fell apart.
READ MORE: Harper Macleod takes forward $120m share fight for FanDuel founders
Since then FanDuel has been sold to Paddy Power Betfair - now known as Flutter Entertainment - in a deal that saw the shareholdings of all five co-founders, early investors and employees wiped out.
Mr Eccles, Ms Eccles, Mr Griffiths and Mr Jones have taken legal action against Shamrock Capital Advisors and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which in 2014 and 2015 respectively led $70 million and $275m fundraising rounds for FanDuel, because they believe they deliberately undervalued the company as part of the Paddy Power Betfair deal.
They are seeking to recover $120 million, although that figure could rise if other ordinary shareholders join the action.
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