TWO co-founders of daily fantasy sports business FanDuel this said they are soon to formally launch their new venture Flick after shifting its focus in the development stage from eSports to podcasting.

Former FanDuel chief executive Nigel Eccles and ex-design head Rob Jones launched Flick at the beginning of last year with the initial plan of creating an online community based around gaming.

Ayrshire businessman Billy Bowie, majority shareholder and director of Kilmarnock Football Club, secured a seven-figure funding package from banking giant HSBC to fuel growth of his Park Hotel and Special Projects business ventures this week.

Mr Bowie is creating 20 jobs at the four-star Park Hotel at Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park, with the modernisation of facilities, the opening of an outdoor bar and restaurant, and the development of two function suites.

Shares in Thomas Cook dropped by 15 per cent on Wednesday after the holidays firm agreed a rescue deal that should secure its future.

Britain’s oldest travel company saw its shares plunge to 6p, against 150p in May 2018, as the package tour pioneer announced it had agreed the key terms to a deal with Chinese firm Fosun, lenders and bondholders.

In Herald Entrepreneur: Gillian Duncan admits the decision to leave her corporate HR job and join a small business wasn’t easy. Intaglio, a bespoke glass manufacturer and designer, had been set up by her husband, Graeme, five years earlier, and was looking to develop.

In this week's Monday Interview, Derek Pierce tells how it was started in 1975 by his father, with a week’s dole money, after he was laid off from a sheet metalwork factory in Glasgow, and “it was literally hand to mouth”.

Now, J&D Pierce Contracts has gone from making railings and gates back then to putting out 1,000 tonnes of steelwork from the family firm’s own factory in Ayrshire each week.