FANDUEL, the Edinburgh-based fantasy sports specialist, has announced the departure of chief executive and co-founder Nigel Eccles.

The company, which runs fantasy leagues for US sports such as baseball and grid iron, said Mr Eccles is leaving the role and stepping down from the board to focus on his next venture. He has been replaced by Matt King, who served as FanDuel’s chief financial officer between 2014 and 2016.

Mr King, who will be based in FanDuel’s New York headquarters, was previously an equity partner and president of regional operations and corporate development at Cottingham & Butler. He is also a former director of US private equity giant Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co, which led a $275 million investment round in FanDuel in 2015.

Mr Eccles founded FanDuel, once hailed as a tech unicorn, with wife Lesley Eccles, Tom Griffiths and Rob Jones, in 2009.

He said: “With his strategic vision, range of experiences, and broad skillset, I cannot imagine a better individual to steer FanDuel forward. With tremendous legislative strides in the past two years and the business moving into profitability in Q4, FanDuel is in a great position. I know Matt is the leader to capitalize on the momentum in the sports technology space to take FanDuel to the next level.”

FanDuel has also named Carl Vogel, previously vice chairman and president of DISH Network Corp, as its new chairman.