This week: Sparket rolls out decentralized market pricing system

Also: How Regen is turning sports betting into a savings habit, and Saroca CEO Emily Haruko on how startups and leaders can navigate M&A, hypergrowth, and more.

February 12, 2026

Sparket rolls out decentralized market pricing system

The news: Social betting platform Sparket has launched Sparket.AI, a system that aggregates sportsbook odds, social media posts, and more than one million internal data points to create event data, odds, and verify outcomes. The technology is powered by its recently granted patent in August which covers event outcome validation, multi-source data aggregation, and settlement. The initial deployment is live on Bittensor, an open-source, decentralized blockchain network.

Zoom in: On the subnet, participants submit probability estimates on event outcomes, which are scored against closing lines and actual results. The system ranks inputs and refines performance over time using machine learning—designed with an “incentive mechanism” that “explicitly rewards informational edge.” Co-founder Aaron Basch says the launch validates his vision for a “safer, more personalized, and radically more accessible,” wagering experience, and is bullish as “the industry shifts toward intelligent, user-led platforms.”

Why it matters: The launch also builds on Sparket’s focus on alternative and long-tail markets—from pop culture and reality TV to niche sports—where pricing and validation can be more fragmented than traditional leagues. Sparket.AI will support the broad range of markets the company already produces through multi-source data aggregation and a ranked validation system. Longer term, the company says the system could expand beyond blockchain use cases and be monetized as a data and API layer for sportsbooks and market makers.

How Regen is turning sports betting into a savings habit

The news: Regen is building an automated savings layer that sits alongside a user’s wagers, allowing bettors to set aside a customizable percentage from every bet (win or lose). Funds are pulled from a linked checking account and stored in a separate, FDIC-insured wallet, intentionally walled off from playable balances. The idea is simple: make saving a byproduct of betting, rather than something that competes with it.

Zoom in: Founded in 2025, Regen’s approach reframes responsible gaming away from limits and exclusions, and toward long-term financial health. Co-founders Daniel Prior and Benson Bleier believe most bettors aren’t trying to be reckless, but the ecosystem gives them very few tools that reinforce sustainable habits. As Prior put it, “Healthy betting means people are able to enjoy their pastime… and it’s appropriately contextualized as something that is sustainable as a pastime,” he shared on The BettingStartups Podcast this week.

Why it matters: Rather than stopping play, Regen’s thinking is that the next wave of responsible gaming innovation won’t limit spend, but thoughtfully redirect it. Last month, Underdog invested in Regen through its GuardDog fund and announced plans to integrate the auto-savings feature—signaling operator appetite for proactive, financial-wellbeing-oriented tools. If betting is going to remain a mainstream pastime, Regen argues, it needs infrastructure that supports longevity for both players and the industry itself.

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Sponsored by NEXT

The news: BettingStartups is partnering with NEXT.io for NEXT Summit: New York, bringing startup and early-stage innovation front and center at one of the industry’s most important U.S. events. The partnership spans NEXT Focus: Emerging Verticals (March 9) and the full Summit (March 10–11).

Why it matters: The industry is at an inflection point. Between shifting regulation, the rise of prediction markets, AI-native products, and new capital models, the next wave of real-money gaming products, people, and innovation will look a lot different than the last one.

Tickets are going quickly and the event is expected to sell out. If you want to be in the room where the next iteration of this industry takes form, and alongside those shaping it, now’s the time. Secure your pass before tickets sell out or prices increase—and use code BETTINGSTARTUPS10 for 10% off your full event pass.

The cost of change, and what leaders need to prioritize during M&A and hypergrowth

The news: M&A, acquisitions, and hypergrowth are usually framed around valuation and integration plans. But Saroca CEO Emily Haruko says the real cost of change shows up inside the team. At NEXT NYC Summit in March, her session ‘The Cost of Change: M&A, Acquisition and Scaling Startups’ will unpack the leadership behaviors that help teams hold together and perform through disruption.

Zoom in: There’s one element founders almost always underestimate: “Psychological safety. Every time.” During periods of uncertainty, leaders often gatekeep information—sometimes due to NDAs, sometimes out of discomfort—leading teams to “fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios,” where anxiety rises and performance drops. As Haruko puts it, “In the absence of information, we make s**t up.”

Why it matters: Haruko argues that EQ, transparency, and human-first leadership aren’t soft during change, but actually performance drivers. Teams that endure disruption well tend to prioritize camaraderie, mutual respect, and clear, nuanced communication over polished strategy decks. Because ultimately, “change doesn’t build culture, it exposes it.”

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