Novig credits Sydney Sweeney’s “Just Sports” campaign for a surge in trading volume and new users, even as some female athletes attacked the ad as a setback for women.
CNBC reported that the sports prediction market launched in early August and unveiled the Sweeney spot on Sept. 9, then saw big jumps in deposits, active users, and downloads.
Co-founder Jacob Fortinsky shared the internal numbers exclusively with the network. In the 20 days before and after the campaign launch, trading volume rose nearly 94 percent. First-time depositors jumped more than 218 percent.
September kept climbing. Active users rose 96 percent month over month and 260 percent year over year. App downloads jumped more than 187 percent.
Fortinsky said he did not expect the ad, timed with the start of the NFL season, to pull in that much volume and that many first-time users.
Novig sells event contracts on sports outcomes. It markets itself as a federally regulated prediction market, not a traditional sportsbook, and sets the minimum age at 21. Competitors Kalshi and Polymarket allow users above 18 in the United States.
In the campaign video, the 29-year-old actress drew a hard line the company wants customers to hear.
Sydney Sweeney said:
"No betting on wars or deaths, and no politics,"
Fortinsky said that stance is what led Sweeney to approach Novig about an equity stake. The company did not disclose the size of her holding.
Some female athletes said the advertisement hurt progress on how women in sports are seen. Fortinsky answered that the spot was never meant to “represent” female athletes. It was meant to show what Novig actually sells: sports contracts, not war or politics markets.
He did not walk it back.
Jacob Fortinsky said:
"Ultimately, I think we have nothing to apologize for and are very proud of the work that we did,"
He added the company was “very happy” with how positive the overall reception was, and that Novig would keep an “aggressive risk-taking culture”, done, he said, in a responsible way relative to the firm’s size.
Named critics went further in outside coverage. Columnists and commentators including Ava Stampa, Jane McManus, and Nancy Armour framed the campaign as demeaning to women in sports. Stampa called Sweeney “a disgrace to feminism, women’s sports.”
Fox News reported that LPGA golfer Charley Hull brushed off the pile-on as a “big hoo-hah out of absolutely nothing,” defending Sweeney’s commercial draw instead of joining the scolding.
Shortly after launch, Novig sued multiple states. The company argues states cannot regulate its sports event contracts because the platform operates as a federally regulated prediction market. Specific states, courts, and docket numbers were not detailed in the CNBC account.
Money followed the growth story. Forbes earlier reported a February Series B of $75 million that valued Novig at $500 million. The Wall Street Journal later reported the company is raising fresh capital at a $2 billion valuation. Novig did not comment on the new round’s size or investors.
That arc, half a billion to two billion after a blunt sports-only ad and a celebrity stake, is the part the scolds skip when they treat a marketing spot like a civil-rights violation.
Prediction markets sit in a gray zone between finance and gambling. Novig’s bet is simple: stay on sports, stay federal, stay 21-plus, and sell the product without apology. Sweeney’s line against war, death, and politics contracts is the brand filter. The growth metrics are the scoreboard Fortinsky chose to publish.
The backlash cast a racy sports ad as an attack on women’s progress. Hull’s reply treated that claim as noise. Fortinsky’s reply was plainer still: the company liked the work, liked the reception, and will keep taking outsized risks.
When a product surges and the loudest objection is aesthetic scolding, customers have already voted, and the lecture lost.