clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Daily Fantasy Boom Turned Into a Nightmare. Now What? FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles Explains. (Video)

Most startup CEOs like to talk about how they're crushing it, but are more reluctant to speak up when things are wobbly.

By Peter Kafka
Asa Mathat for Vox Media
Peter Kafka covers media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.

Last summer, FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles was running a red-hot startup. Then the NFL season started, and so did a barrage of ads from FanDuel and its competitor DraftKings, and then his troubles started.

The way Eccles tells it, all of those ads — perhaps a couple hundred million dollars worth of ads — acted like a beacon for state regulators, some of whom have decided that the “daily fantasy” games FanDuel and DraftKings run constitute gambling, and should be regulated as such. Now the company is fighting for its legal life, in a state-by-state battle.

I wasn’t quite sure that Eccles was going to come onstage at Code/Media last week and talk about all of this, but I’m very glad he did. Most startup CEOs like to talk about how they’re crushing it, but are more reluctant to speak up when things are wobbly. Here’s the full video of our chat:

And if you want to listen to this on the go, you can do that, too. Here’s the audio, which you can also get from iTunes, along with the rest of last week’s sessions:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Next Up In Technology

The Latest

Congress just avoided a shutdown. Kevin McCarthy’s fight is just beginning.

By Ellen Ioanes

The 2010s was a decade of protests. Why did so many revolutions fail?

By Jonathan Guyer

Congress avoided a shutdown. What happens now?

By Ben Jacobs

How do you prepare a city like New York for major floods?

By Ellen Ioanes

Gossiping doesn’t mean you’re a bad friend

By Alex Abad-Santos

Everything you need to know about government shutdowns

By Li Zhou

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.