BetHog, the crypto casino and sportsbook founded by the creators of FanDuel, has closed a $10 million Series A funding round and launched Sentient Studios, a new B2B platform that allows casino operators to deploy AI-powered live dealers without relying on traditional studio infrastructure.
The round was co-led by Will Ventures and RockawayX, with participation from PCV, 6MV, Bullpen Capital and Advancit Capital. The raise brings BetHog’s total funding to $16 million, following the $6 million seed round that backed the company’s launch in 2024. The capital will be used to expand BetHog’s AI dealer technology on its own platform and accelerate the rollout of Sentient Studios to operators globally.
The story behind the funding is rooted in a finding that caught BetHog’s leadership off guard. When the company launched its first AI-powered blackjack dealer, Sunny, in October 2025, it expected a modest reception. Instead, Sunny quickly became one of the most played games on the platform and is now available in 12 languages. Testing over six months revealed that the AI dealer format was ten times more popular than its traditional live dealer equivalent, with better player retention and satisfaction scores to match. CEO and co-founder Nigel Eccles pointed to a surprising insight behind those numbers — a large segment of players who like the idea of live dealer gaming but find the real thing intimidating. Sunny offered those players a more comfortable, less pressured alternative, and they responded enthusiastically.
That insight is now the foundation for Sentient Studios. The B2B platform enables casino operators to deploy AI dealers across their live casino offerings, creating a software-driven alternative to the current model where operators depend on third-party providers for table supply, staffing and production capacity. That dependence has historically limited how quickly operators can scale, how much they can localise, and how distinctively they can differentiate their product. Sentient Studios removes those constraints by giving operators the tools to create their own branded dealer experiences, run them continuously without the staffing overhead of physical studios, and personalise interactions in ways that traditional setups cannot easily support.
The commercial structure of Sentient Studios is designed to lower the barrier to entry. It operates on a pure revenue-share model with no setup fees, no monthly minimums and no fixed-term contracts. For operators that want to test AI-powered live dealer experiences without committing to large upfront costs, that structure removes the main objection. BetHog plans to expand its own AI dealer offering later in 2026 with the addition of baccarat and roulette, which will also become available through Sentient Studios as the product suite grows.
The investors backing this round bring relevant and complementary expertise. Will Ventures has deep roots in sports, entertainment and consumer industries, drawing on experience from Andreessen Horowitz, the NFL, the NBA and YouTube. RockawayX manages over $2 billion across venture, infrastructure, liquidity and credit strategies, with a sharp focus on early-stage crypto and on-chain applications. Together, their backing reflects confidence not just in BetHog as a crypto-native gaming platform, but in the broader thesis that AI-powered live dealer experiences represent a genuine structural shift in how online casinos are built and operated.
For the iGaming industry, the significance of BetHog’s raise extends beyond a single funding announcement. It validates the idea that AI can replace not just augment live human dealers in a format that players actively prefer, and that there is a viable B2B business model in bringing that technology to the wider market. If Sentient Studios scales as its backers believe it can, the live dealer category could look very different within a few years.
