Fantasy sports giant FanDuel to tap into Scottish digital skills academy CodeClan

FanDuel, the Edinburgh-founded sports betting tech giant, has agreed a tie-up with CodeClan, the Scottish digital skills academy.

As a keystone “employer partner”, former tech unicorn FanDuel will take on graduates from the academy’s programming, data and bespoke courses.

CodeClan already partners with companies such as BlackRock, Tesco Bank and FreeAgent, working closely with a range of commercial and public sector organisations to identify graduates who are going to provide the best fit.

FanDuel – which now forms part of betting giant Flutter Entertainment, formerly Paddy Power Betfair – has also been lined up as the headline sponsor for CodeClan’s open week this year, which will take place virtually next week. The event will be focused on giving prospective candidates and partner companies a series of introductory sessions on CodeClan and Scotland’s digital landscape in 2021.

Melinda Matthews-Clarkson of CodeClan and Justin Kerestes of FanDuel. Picture: Stewart Attwood

The sessions include interactive coding classes with instructors, the chance to network with companies, career coaching and social events.

Melinda Matthews-Clarkson, chief executive of CodeClan, said: “FanDuel is one of Scotland’s greatest tech success stories, and we’re excited that our graduates will have the opportunity to join a world-class engineering team. CodeClan is a social enterprise and teaming with FanDuel is a good thing for the tech community here.”

She added: “Our open week is a great opportunity for individuals and companies alike to get involved in one or more of the events taking place, to find out more about digital skills and careers at a time when the digital economy has never been more important than it is today. And we’re thankful to have the support of FanDuel as our main sponsor.”

Justin Kerestes, vice president, software engineering, FanDuel, said: “We are proud to be a partner and a sponsor of CodeClan. With the explosive growth FanDuel has been experiencing in the past few years, finding talent through CodeClan has allowed us to improve our hiring velocity and scale our organisation to match this demand.

“CodeClan graduates improve our organisational diversity and bring a unique perspective to our company; having worked in other industries, they often challenge us in thought provoking ways that a traditional candidate does not.

“FanDuel Scotland is proud to be able to invest our success back in the community through our partnership, and we are excited to establish a long-term relationship with a centre of high quality engineering talent.”

CodeClan said it had experienced record demand for its programming, data and bespoke courses in 2020, when it marked its fifth anniversary, and has produced more than 1,400 graduates since opening its doors in 2015.

At the end of last year, the digital skills academy partnered with the Scottish Tech Army to allow its graduates to work on critical Covid-support projects while providing a springboard into new digital careers.

Scottish Tech Army was launched last April to harness the skills of the tech community and support organisations on the front line of dealing with the effects of the pandemic.

Organisations supported include Young Enterprise Scotland, Govan Community Project, Edinburgh Community Food, Voluntary Services Aberdeen, Inspiring Scotland and the National Library of Scotland.

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