FanDuel Co-Founder Nigel Eccles Says Operator Demand Drove BetHog’s Shift to AI Dealers

BetHog is shutting down its crypto casino and sportsbook to focus exclusively on Sentient Studios, its AI dealer business. CEO Nigel Eccles told Gambling Insider that growing operator demand prompted the company to pivot away from consumer gambling.

The company notified customers today that BetHog will cease operations on July 30, after which users will no longer be able to place bets or play casino games. Customers will have until Aug. 31 to withdraw their funds. After that date, they must contact customer support directly.

The move comes just three months after BetHog raised $10 million in Series A funding and launched Sentient Studios, a B2B platform bringing AI-powered live dealers to online casino operators.

At the time, in a Gambling Insider Q&A, Eccles said that the company intended to operate both its consumer platform and supplier business. He also discussed plans to expand beyond blackjack into baccarat and roulette.

Operator Demand Drove the Pivot

Eccles told Gambling Insider via email that a growing commercial interest in its AI dealer technology, rather than weak casino performance, was the reason for the decision.

The biggest change [since the Q&A] was the huge pick up in interest in our AI dealer games,” Eccles said. “We now have a solid pipeline of operators who want to deploy it, and we felt that to really deliver on that opportunity, we needed to focus our resources.”

Asked whether the move reflected Sentient Studios’ opportunity or challenges growing BetHog as a crypto casino, Eccles said the former.

Really, the former. We definitely think crypto casinos are a good business, and BetHog could be very successful, but we believe our expertise lies more in creating games.”

Eccles said that conversations with operators ultimately convinced the company to dedicate itself to the AI supplier business fully.

I think the biggest factor was the response of operators. They really want this option where they can quickly spin up branded live dealer games with no up-front costs or monthly minimums.”

While the company has not announced any commercial partnerships yet, Eccles said discussions with operators are progressing.

We don’t have any deals to announce today, but we hope to do so very soon.”

Entire Engineering Team Now Focused on AI Dealers

Eccles said closing BetHog allows the company to dedicate all development resources to Sentient Studios.

It [BetHog’s shutdown] means we can put 100% of our engineering team on AI dealer. That means more and better games, delivered faster.”

Rather than immediately expanding into entirely new products, Eccles said much of the company’s effort is focused on improving its existing AI dealers.

Most of our effort is actually on continuing to improve and upgrade those games [blackjack and baccarat]. Already, we have dealers who react to game states and have lip sync.”

He said future updates will improve facial expressions and hand movements while dramatically expanding language support.

Next steps are to improve their hand and face coordination, and increase the number of human-like movements. Added to that, we plan to quickly increase the number of languages the dealer speaks from 6 to 74.”

Eccles declined to estimate how many operators will launch the platform this year. He said the company is prioritizing strategic partnerships over volume.

It is really hard to say right now. However, we are less focused on the number of partners as opposed to getting the right partners.”

The broader AI roadmap also remains intact. Eccles confirmed the company is still interested in AI-powered VIP managers and sportsbook agents, concepts he previously discussed with Gambling Insider.

Yes, we definitely still have our eyes on building them over the longer term.”