"I don't want to speak badly of VCs, but they struggle when there's not a case study," Eccles told me, highlighting the hesitance of venture capitalists to invest in an uncertain market without precedents to guide them.
The humble start, at least compared to the multi-billion-dollar behemoth that FanDuel became, mirrors the difficult path that Eccles faced with daily fantasy sports, which underscores the challenges new entrants encounter.
Eccles is diving into an even riskier market - online casinos, where users can wager money on arcade-style games from the comfort of their web browsers, indicating a push toward expanding the online gambling landscape.
When raising money for FanDuel, he faced hundreds of turndowns from VCs, due to specific provisions in their LP agreements that forbade them from investing in gambling companies, revealing the systemic challenges within funding for gambling startups.