FanDuel founders suing PPB for $120 Million

Business News

The founders of FanDuel have issued legal proceedings against Paddy Power Betfair for $120m, according to court documents filed in Scotland.

Nigel Eccles created the fantasy sports site FanDuel back in 2009, and when it was acquired by European gambling company Paddy Power Betfair earlier this year, FanDuel was valued at $465 million.

According to Recode, Eccles believes FanDuel was purposefully undervalued in the deal essentially cutting him and the company’s other employees out of the money. So Eccles filed a petition in Scottish civil court last month with FanDuel’s other co-founders. Eccles thinks the founding team’s cumulative shares are worth more than $120 million.

When FanDuel’s management sold the company to PPB after the departure of Eccles and company no money went to the company’s founders or to any ordinary shareholder.

Meanwhile, current CEO Matt King and the rest of the executive team made millions on the transaction. That’s because preferential shareholders in the deal were to be paid first, leaving no money for Eccles, the founders or employees who had bought into the company.

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