The NFL remains opposed to partnering with prediction markets, but that’s not stopping platforms from trying to capitalize on the start of the season.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s NFL kickoff, Polymarket launched an advertising campaign featuring LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning and a host of other athletes and celebrities. Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier reunited to recreate the spirit of their former HBO show Entourage in a commercial for the new “super app” from Jake Paul’s Betr, which allows users to trade on prediction markets, play social casino games, and more (Betr’s event contracts are powered by Polymarket). And Sydney Sweeney is nakedly promoting Novig, using basketballs and footballs to cover herself in a racy ad.
The audacity of the ads comes straight from the prediction-market playbook. Each spot has drawn significant online attention, and in many cases that attention has been negative. Perhaps the most prominent response was to the Betr commercial, which was initially released via social media post from Piven, who wrote “I found my boy…” and tagged Grenier and Betr. Despite a mostly positive reception online, Entourage creator Doug Ellin responded to Piven’s post with ire. “I think it’s pretty damn obvious I didn’t write it. My god,” he wrote in one post. “I have zero positivity” watching the ad, he said in another, adding, “This is trash and theft. Period.”
