Nigel Eccles Goes All In on AI Live Dealers
United Kingdom.- 5 August 2026 | www.zonadeazar.com FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles has decided to close cryptocurrency casino BetHog and focus its resources on Sentient Studios, a new company specialising in artificial intelligence-powered virtual dealers.
The technology offers photorealistic avatars capable of dealing blackjack and communicating with players in real time, without physical studios or human croupiers operating behind the tables.
News Details
The product began as a side project deployed within BetHog. However, player behaviour encouraged the team to reconsider its wider business strategy.
Traditional live dealer tables generally attract a relatively small number of high-staking, high-volume customers. In contrast, the artificial intelligence version attracted lower-staking players participating in shorter and more occasional sessions.
Sentient Studios also introduced a feature enabling customers to ask the virtual dealer for advice. The tool was developed after the company observed that beginners felt more comfortable asking questions to an avatar than to a human dealer.
BetHog’s 15-member engineering team, based in the United Kingdom, gradually moved across to the development of the new solution.
Industry Context
The technology enables operators to quickly customise the appearance, clothing, voice and personality of their dealers. According to Eccles, a branded studio adaptation that may take between three and six months under a traditional model can be completed through the platform within one or two weeks.
The system also provides flexible capacity. Operators can deploy anything from one table to thousands and increase or reduce the number available according to demand.
Generating responsive photorealistic video remains one of the principal technical challenges. The avatar must recognise the cards, construct a response, select an emotion and coordinate its lips, hands and posture within seconds.
The first version, launched in October, used a deliberately animated style. Photorealistic characters were introduced in April, with the company releasing improvements every two weeks since then.
Statements
Nigel Eccles said:
“We ran the risk that if we didn’t put 100% behind it, we’d fail at AI live dealer – the one thing we were really excited about.”
Discussing the technology’s customisation capabilities, he explained:
“We can change the uniform of the dealers, how they talk, their personalities and what they look like.”
Looking ahead to the future of the market, he predicted:
“In five years’ time, 80% of live dealer will be AI-based avatars.”
Next Steps or Impact
Sentient Studios expects several tier-one regulated international operators to launch its technology during 2026.
The solution essentially operates as a certified random number generator product. The dealer has no knowledge of upcoming cards and can be trained to support responsible gambling, including warning a player who says they have run out of money.
The proposition could reshape the live casino market by reducing infrastructure costs, making table customisation faster and extending the product to players who may feel intimidated when interacting with human dealers.
EditĂł: @fonta
