For all the innovation in U.S. sports betting over the past decade, one thing has remained largely untouched: what happens to a bettor’s money over time. Regen’s thinking is that the next wave of responsible gaming innovation won’t be about stopping play but thoughtfully redirecting it.
Founded in 2025, Regen is building an automated savings layer that sits alongside a user’s wagers. The product allows users to set aside a customizable percentage from every bet (win or lose) with funds pulled from a linked checking account and stored in a separate, FDIC-insured wallet. The money is intentionally walled off from playable balances, and users can pause or adjust contributions at any time.
The idea is simple: make saving a byproduct of betting, rather than something that competes with it.
Co-founders Daniel Prior and Benson Bleier recently joined The BettingStartups Podcast to unpack how the product came together, and why they believe betting doesn’t have to be at odds with long-term financial health.
Bleier traces the concept back to his years as a professional poker player. “I worked in consulting at Accenture, and then followed that with playing professional poker for a number of years, which is where the idea for Regen was born,” he said.
His experience collided with Prior’s background in consulting and venture capital after the two met, somewhat improbably, while living in Argentina. What started as a casual conversation about betting behavior turned into a shared thesis that most bettors aren’t trying to be reckless, but the ecosystem gives them very few tools that reinforce sustainable habits.
“Healthy betting means people are able to enjoy their pastime… and it’s appropriately contextualized as something that is sustainable as a pastime,” Prior said on the podcast. “It’s not negative for their wider financial wellbeing.”
Regen’s approach is notably different from traditional responsible gaming tools, which often revolve around limits, exclusions, or reactive interventions. Instead, the company positions savings as a parallel track—one that builds quietly in the background while users continue to engage with sports.
That framing appears to be resonating with operators. Last month, Underdog invested in Regen through its responsible gaming innovation fund GuardDog, and announced plans to integrate Regen’s auto-savings feature into the Underdog platform. While the deal wasn’t the focus of the podcast conversation, it underscored a growing appetite among operators for proactive, financial-wellbeing-oriented tools that can span fantasy, prediction markets, and other formats under one roof.
Looking ahead, Regen’s ambitions extend beyond basic savings. Prior outlined a roadmap that includes longer-term financial products designed to turn betting activity into education by osmosis. “As they start to build their savings with Regen… they’re gonna be contributing to a Roth IRA, all of these different products where they start to learn about the power of compounding,” he said.
For Prior and Bleier, the endgame isn’t reducing engagement, but reframing it. If betting is going to remain a mainstream pastime, they argue, it needs infrastructure that supports longevity for both players and the industry itself.
“I think that’s gonna be a really harmonious system,” Prior said, “and one that contributes to safeguarding the longevity in the future of the industry as a whole.”
Listen to the full podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
