Ep. 198: The long road to a breakthrough inflection point w/ Pierre Lindh from Next.io

Ep. 198 features Pierre Lindh, founder of NEXT.io, returning for his fourth appearance on the Betting Startups Podcast. Pierre reflects on NEXT.io’s breakout year, the transition from scrappy startup to growth-stage business, the role of investigative journalism in iGaming media, and why emerging betting products may go global in 2026.

Hear them discuss:

• How 2025 became a “12-year overnight success” after more than a decade of compounding momentum
• The shift from runway preservation to investing aggressively in growth
• Why founders inevitably become bottlenecks and how to let go without losing vision
• The importance of finding a true operational counterbalance as a visionary leader
• Why sustainable scaling beats short-term overexpansion in a cyclical industry
• How AI is reshaping media and why human journalism may become more valuable, not less
• The commercial trade-offs of integrity-led investigative reporting
• Game theory, AI acceleration, and why safety may lose to competitive pressure
• The explosive growth of NEXT New York and what makes it a senior-level dealmaking event
• His 2026 prediction: emerging products like prediction markets and sweepstakes expanding globally

If you don't have a ticket for the Next.io Summit in New York event yet, use discount code BETTINGSTARTUPS10 for 10% off your full event pass. Grab your ticket here: https://next.io/summits/newyork/