Author: Merrel Briona

Digital betting platforms have exploded into the American zeitgeist over the past few years. These digital sportsbooks are often framed as whimsical apps designed for amusing little small-time bets, but the reality is that they’ve plunged tens of millions of people into gambling debt.

According to a bombshell analysis by Bloomberg, the least active two-thirds of sportsbook gamblers account for just 2.7 percent of estimated revenue — meaning that the remaining 33 percent of highly-active bettors account for the overwhelming bulk of the industry’s earnings.

That finding has some major implications for the gambling industry, which in 2025 was a more lucrative trade than film, video games, music, books, and museums combined.

Without the gamblers who see fit to pay into their various betting apps hundreds of times a year, Bloomberg observes, digital sportsbooks could lose around 60 percent of their revenue. The vast majority of gamblers, the analysis found, lost about 39 cents for every dollar they deposited into their apps. But for the top one percent of depositors lost nearly twice that rate, about 78 cents on the dollar.

Sportsbooks deny this reality profusely, framing their apps as entertainment products used by the majority of gamblers for brief — but fun — hits of excitement.

“As we have noted repeatedly, FanDuel is an entertainment product,” a FanDuel spokesperson told Bloomberg. “Every customer has a robust and easy-to-use suite of tools that support informed and controlled play — including deposit limits, timeouts and the ability to easily self-exclude with a few clicks.”

But the gulf between that statement and the findings in Bloomberg’s analysis is so wide that it’s downright insulting.

Of course, it’s well known that sportsbooks and other gambling companies exploit addicts and casual bettors alike — but these findings make it clear that the sportsbook market needs the former to make its windfall profits. Put another way, the industry has a crystal clear financial incentive to push as many Americans as possible into problem gambling territory, which probably explains why so many sports betting ads are flooding college campuses and the social media feeds of very young adults.

More on gambling: Democrats Preparing Crackdown on Prediction Markets

In this edition of the biotech bi-weekly, learn more about the world’s first AI biosecurity lab launching in the UK, a versatile gel imaging system for proteomic, genomic and transcriptomic imaging, and a suite of new media for EVs. We also cover the latest funding rounds cleared and unveil the winner of the 2026 ‘Drug Discovery Company of the Year’ award.

Products

Extracellular vesicle medium gets a new GMP-grade version to aid clinical translation

Takara Bio Europe (Paris, France), manufacturer and supplier of cell biology reagents and services, has introduced a GMP-grade version of Cellartis® MSC EV Wonder™, its defined, xeno-free medium developed for the efficient and scalable production of extracellular vesicles from human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).

“By expanding Cellartis MSC EV Wonder with a GMP-grade option, we are strengthening our support for developers working to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and clinical translation,” commented Tarik Hadi, Senior Market Strategy Manager at Takara Bio Europe.

Read the full release >>>

New imaging system to streamline parallel proteomic, genomic and transcriptomic imaging

Thermo Fisher Scientific (MA, USA) has launched the Invitrogen™ iGlow™ Gel Documentation System, a compact imaging system that brings together protein and nucleic acid imaging into a single instrument, with one-touch capture and integrated UV, blue and white LED illumination. Purified protein is suitable for downstream mass spectrometry analysis, while extracted DNA and RNA are compatible with next-generation sequencing applications, enabling more direct comparison of molecular data generated from the same sample.

Get more info on the system here >>>

New widely applicable ‘value-priced’ master mixes for qPCR

Thermo Fisher Scientific has also released AmpSure Universal SYBR Green and Probe Master Mixes. Designed for everyday applications, the mixes support reliable, reproducible quantitative PCR (qPCR) performance and offer researchers a value-priced option as labs balance performance with budget. Both mixes are compatible with leading qPCR instruments and a wide range of reverse transcriptases, primers and probes. This flexibility allows researchers to use AmpSure with their existing instruments and established workflows.

Read the full release >>>

Automated platform places cell interactions in context

Moleculent (Stockholm, Sweden), a functional profiling biotech company, has released Glimt, an automated platform that detects cell–cell interactions directly in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue, through an early access program, with full commercial access coming in 2027. The Glimt platform runs Moleculent’s proprietary Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA), which detects interacting receptor–ligand pairs between neighboring cells in their native tissue environment at high plex. In the same run, the platform detects individual proteins for cell typing, placing each interaction in its tissue context.

Read the full release >>>

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Start your chain reaction as you mean to go on: your ultimate digital PCR bundle

Gain access to three guides, giving you a comprehensive overview of digital PCR, its applications and the latest approaches.

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Partnerships

UK launches world-first AI Biosecurity Lab

The UK government has announced the world’s first AI biosecurity lab, backed by £100 million of government funding, and up to £200 million in company commitments from OpenAI and Anthropic (both CA, USA). The lab will use frontier AI to develop technical capabilities and support partners, including the UK’s national biosecurity centers and life sciences industry, to detect biological threats earlier and accelerate the discovery, development and testing of vaccines, treatments and other medical countermeasures. The lab aims to help the UK better understand, prevent, detect and respond to biological threats, building on the UK’s broader Biological Security Strategy.

Read the full release >>>

Early-stage mRNA therapeutics company secures seed funding

SRTD Biotech (Jülich, Germany), a next-generation mRNA therapeutics-focused biotech company, just closed its oversubscribed €31.5 million seed funding round, led by Mérieux Equity Partners (Lyon, France). The new capital will fund the preclinical development of SRTD’s pipeline of novel targeted RNA therapies across oncology, autoimmune and fibrosis indications towards Investigational New Drug (IND).

Read the full release >>>

Immunology-focused biotech purchases a macrocyclic peptide discovery engine

Immunology innovation company argenx (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Unnatural Products, Inc. (CA, USA), a biotech company that has developed a platform to address the complexities of medicinal chemistry in the macrocyclic peptide space through a combination of parallel experimentation and machine learning.

“UNP adds macrocyclic peptide capabilities that are highly complementary to our antibody engineering and creates new possibilities for oral and long-acting medicines. After working together for more than two years, we also know there is a strong fit in how we work: science first, entrepreneurial and focused on patients. We want to preserve what has made UNP successful while bringing the strengths of both teams together,” commented argenx CEO Karen Massey.

Read the full release >>>

Early-stage myeloproliferative neoplasms biotherapeutics company secures funding to enable clinical-stage transition

A biopharmaceutical company targeting myeloproliferative neoplasms, Alethio Therapeutics (Oxford, UK), has completed its oversubscribed US$90 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by new investors Sofinnova Partners (Paris, France) and RA Capital (MA, USA), alongside founding investor Oxford Science Enterprises (UK), with additional support from the University of Oxford (UK) and Cancer Research Horizons (London, UK).

The proceeds of the financing will enable Alethio to transition into a clinical-stage company, with capital deployed to advance its lead program, ATX-011, through completion of Phase 1/2a studies in essential thrombocythaemia, up to Phase 3 readiness, while also progressing additional MPN programs towards IND submission.

Read the full release >>>

Funding round supports expansion of single-cell screening platform for antibody discovery

Samplix (Copenhagen, Denmark), a provider of droplet microfluidics technology for functional single-cell analysis, has reached the end point of a €25 million funding round to support the commercial expansion of Xdrop, its single-cell screening platform for antibody discovery and biotherapeutic development. Xdrop enables researchers to screen cells based on their biological function, helping identify and recover cells producing antibodies with the desired activity.  The funding round was led by family office and private investment firm WLan Holding GmbH (Vienna, Austria)

Read the full release >>>

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Application Note: Whole-genome sequencing workflow enables assessment of previously difficult-to-map genomic regions

This Application Note highlights how Illumina TruPath™ Genome, combined with the DRAGEN™ Multi-Region Joint Detection algorithm, enables haplotype-resolved, copy-aware detection of small variants in highly homologous and paralogous genomic regions using a single whole-genome sequencing workflow.

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People and publications

And the award goes to…

Kazia Therapeutics Limited (Sydney, Australia), an oncology-focused biotechnology company developing therapies that selectively reprogram cancer biology, restore anti-tumor immunity and overcome treatment resistance, has been named ‘Drug Discovery Company of the Year’ in the 2026 BioTech Breakthrough Awards program, recognizing their innovative approach to developing next-generation cancer therapeutics.

Kazia’s lead asset, paxalisib, is an investigational, oral, brain-penetrant dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor with emerging evidence supporting its potential to reprogram cancer biology and the tumor microenvironment through epigenetic and immune-mediated mechanisms.

“Treatment resistance remains one of the greatest challenges in advanced breast cancer and other difficult-to-treat cancers. At Kazia, we are pursuing a differentiated approach to drug discovery that goes beyond conventional pathway inhibition to address the underlying biological mechanisms that enable tumors to evade the immune system and resist treatment,” commented John Friend, CEO of Kazia Therapeutics.

Read the full release >>>

By Laura Hyde |
11 November 2026

Australian life insurance firm TAL is investing in technology and skills to help it adapt and stay relevant for the five million Australians and their families who rely on its life insurance policies.

While TAL initially explored AI as a productivity tool, in April 2026 the firm signed a five-year agreement with Microsoft to accelerate its cloud and AI capabilities with infrastructure and skills investment designed to support employees. As part of this effort, TAL introduced a chat-based knowledge assistant, which provides employees with accurate answers to claims-related queries, saving an average of seven minutes per query. The insurer has also integrated an AI-powered post-call summarisation tool into its core claims system to automatically transcribe and summarise customer conversations in real time.

TAL’s approach to using AI to help teams be more present for customers when they need them most reflects Microsoft’s “frontier mindset”. Rooted in the frontier firm framework, the approach encourages organisations to treat AI as a core part of the workforce, augmenting employees rather than simply serving as another software tool. 

Testing, learning and experimenting safely with AI has been and continues to be an important part of TAL’s approach. The insurer recognises it must remain both trusted and adaptable, which requires leaders to establish clear guardrails to enable employees to innovate with confidence, while maintaining the trust of its customers.

“It would be a good collective goal right now for us to have an Australia that is prosperous and well and inclusive and thriving … and I think AI has a good role to play in that,” said Fiona Macgregor, group CEO and managing director of TAL.

For years now, Palantir CEO Alex Karp has been cozying up to the Trump administration, from aiding Immigration and Customs Enforcement through AI-powered surveillance tech and musing about legalizing war crimes to making unsavory comments about women and bragging that he frequently chats with “real Nazis.”

Karp has been accused of going “full MAGA,” defending president Donald Trump by trying to argue that he isn’t a fascist. His company helped the so-called Department of Government Efficiency as it ripped apart federal government agencies. He has taken plenty of swipes at the Democratic party itself, accusing it of being “totally irresponsible,” while gloating about carrying out a “completely anti-woke” agenda.

But now that a different wind is blowing in Washington after Democrats crushed Republicans in last week’s midterm elections, Karp is singing an entirely different tune. As Politico reports, Karp has seemingly realized that he will have to dramatically change the rhetoric to ward off increased scrutiny by lawmakers, who have made broad gestures toward holding Silicon Valley accountable once they take over control of Congress.

During his interview with the publication, strikingly, he used the word “progressive” a whopping eight times.

“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” Karp told Politico after spending years criticizing the left. “I grew up in a far left environment. I know more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet, and I absolutely believe Palantir — all of our products are essentially progressive.”

Karp’s desperate attempts to cozy up to the left are symptomatic of a much greater shift following the midterms. The tech oligarchy is now faced with a strikingly political landscape. As the Washington Post reports, a growing group of tech leaders are plotting a major shift in their strategy.

But that may be easier said than done, given how deeply entrenched Silicon Valley has become with the far right, from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk personally overseeing a catastrophic gutting of federal agencies as a “special government employee” to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman meeting with Trump both publicly behind the scenes to further the company’s interests.

Many of these voices have been unusually quiet following last week’s elections, unlike Karp. But given how tech giants, including Google and Microsoft, are already making concessions to win over an American public that overwhelmingly opposes data centers, they’ll likely have to choose their words carefully.

Major policy shifts are very much on the table after Congress changes hands, from a slowdown in AI development to more data center moratoriums and holding tech companies accountable for the environmental impact of their work.

Trump may maintain the power to veto these measures — but who knows how long those remaining bastions of an administration that fell out of favor with the American people will last.

More on tech CEOs: Trump Says It’s Fine for a CEO to Cheat on His Wife With an Alleged Spy