On the heels of President elect Donald Trump’s resounding win last week, bitcoin bolted past $85,000 for the first time on record, amid expectations for a looser regulatory environment in the new administration.

With the resurgence in the crypto trade, two former co-founders of FanDuel are launching a new crypto sportsbook and casino. On Tuesday, BetHog announced its public launch with $6 million in seed funding, led by 6MV, a venture capital firm focused on investments in gaming and Web3 applications. BetHog, which has aspirations to become the world’s largest crypto casino and sportsbook operator, was conceived by Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones, two former co-founders of FanDuel.

“The crypto casino market has seen dramatic growth over the past few years driven by innovations like provably fair games, robust VIP programs and streaming,” said Nigel Eccles, who serves as co-founder & CEO of BetHog. “With BetHog, my goal is to innovate even further by bringing unique and highly visual games to market. I want to offer users unique play-along and skill-based titles, combined with a robust VIP offering, but most of all, this is about maximizing fun for our users.”

Regulatory Hurdles

BetHog is licensed and regulated by the island nation of Anjouan, an island located in the Indian Ocean. For the moment, BetHog will not accept wagers from the U.S., Ontario, or the majority of Western Europe. Eventually, though, the company plans to be regulated in each of those places “where feasible,” Eccles told me.

Although some states have explored uses for crypto in sports betting, broader efforts have largely failed to get off the ground. In 2021, Wyoming became the first state to recognize cryptocurrency as a legal tender for event wagers. A year later, Virginia and Colorado, approved regulations that allow deposits from crypto to be converted into dollars for sports betting purposes.

While several leading sportsbooks have accepted a host of cryptocurrencies for deposits, their player accounts are funded exclusively in U.S. dollars. As part of the conversion process, the deposits are exchanged for dollars through a crypto-exchange platform that previously received vendor approval in those states.

BetHog will provide competition for BetDEX Exchange, another prominent crypto sportsbook. In May, Scotland-based BetDEX Labs announced the launch of the BetDEX Exchange, a decentralized sports betting exchange. BetDEX is a contributor to the Monaco Protocol, a permissionless decentralized and open-sourced protocol built on the Solana blockchain.

BetDEX was founded by several ex-FanDuel executives, including Eccles. As with BetDEX, the BetHog casino is built on Solana, with SOL as the supporting token for the company’s PvP titles. In addition, BetHog also accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT for account funding.

AML Safeguards

BetHog announced its launch on Tuesday as state regulators and law enforcement place a closer eye on money laundering violations in the gambling industry. Last month, Damien Leforbes, a prominent poker player, pleaded guilty to federal charges on transactional money laundering and operating an illegal sports betting ring. Leforbes, according to a federal complaint, wagered nearly $150 million at a venue identified in court filings as “Casino A.” Leforbes, who has connections to bookmaker Matt Bowyer according to numerous sources, allegedly used multiple crypto wallets to receive money from his betting clients.

Bowyer is the bookie of Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. Mizuhara is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud charges in connection with allegedly embezzling more than $16 million from Ohtani.

Though money laundering is a concern for online casinos and sportsbooks whether they use crypto or fiat, Eccles is pleased with BetHog’s commitment for providing robust Anti-Money Laundering (AML) safeguards.

“One of the great things about crypto is all transactions are public and traceable, we work with a number of partners to enable us to conduct risk based AML checks,” he emphasized.

Upon its launch, BetHog will carry the four major U.S. sports, soccer, cricket and many others, Eccles noted. The sportsbook will support numerous markets and bet types, including same-game parlays. Besides 6MV, several others such as: Will Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Karatage, Advancit Capital, Chris Grove, partner emeritus at Eilers & Krejcik, LLC and Josh Hannah, co-founder of Flutter Entertainment, participated in the seed funding round.

“We think (BetHog is) perfectly positioned to unlock this massive opportunity to build the most innovative online casino and betting platform of this era of crypto,” said Serge Kassardjian, general partner at 6MV.

As of 10:15 ET, bitcoin traded at $87,376.54, up 4% on the day. Bitcoin has surged about 15% since Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.