Hubdub Ltd

History and Launch

Hubdub Ltd was incorporated to operate a web-based prediction market at Hubdub.com. The site launched on 28 January 2008 at the DEMO 08 technology conference. Users received virtual currency to buy and sell shares in predictions about future events across categories such as politics, sport, entertainment, and technology. The platform functioned similarly to a stock market, with prediction prices fluctuating based on user activity. Leaderboards tracked user performance, rewarding expertise.

Features and PunditWatch

In June 2008, Hubdub introduced PunditWatch, a feature that logged public predictions made by prominent bloggers and pundits (e.g., TechCrunch, Pat Buchanan, Perez Hilton) and tracked their accuracy over time. Although the Wall Street Journal praised the concept, it noted execution flaws.

Pivot to FanDuel

On 21 July 2009, the company launched FanDuel, a premium fantasy sports game where users paid entry fees to compete for cash prizes. FanDuel was initially conceived as a revenue-generating product for the prediction market, but quickly showed greater commercial potential. Hubdub secured $1.2 million in venture capital funding from Pentech Ventures in January 2009.

Closure

On 14 April 2010, Hubdub announced the closure of its news prediction site, effective 30 April 2010. CEO Nigel Eccles explained to The Drum that the closure was due to insufficient resources to maintain both Hubdub and the rapidly growing FanDuel. Hubdub’s advertising model proved unsustainable, while FanDuel offered newspapers direct revenue-sharing partnerships. At the time, Hubdub had seven employees, with staff split between Scotland and the US. The company attempted to sell Hubdub but found no buyers, leading to a full shutdown of the original platform. The closure marked a complete pivot to FanDuel, which later became a leading daily fantasy sports operator in the United States and, after the repeal of PASPA in 2018, a major player in online sports betting. FanDuel was acquired by Flutter Entertainment (then Paddy Power Betfair) in a series of deals culminating in full ownership by 2018.

Legacy: Hubdub Ltd is remembered as the predecessor to FanDuel. The prediction market technology itself was novel but commercially unviable. The company’s team—including co-founders Nigel Eccles, Lesley Eccles, Rob Jones, Tom Griffiths, and Chris Stafford—learned valuable lessons about monetisation, user acquisition, and the US market that directly informed FanDuel’s success. Today, Hubdub.com is inactive, and the company no longer operates. No current leadership exists.