In July, Novig founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky told Front Office Sports that despite Kalshi and Polymarket’s head start, he was “very optimistic that a year from now we will very much be one of the first companies people think of when they hear about prediction markets.”
Turns out he didn’t need nearly a full year.
On Wednesday, Novig released a racy new ad featuring movie star Sydney Sweeney in which she is completely naked, covering herself with footballs, basketballs, and hockey pads. The commercial—one of three new ads from prediction-market platforms featuring celebrities that have generated buzz this week—immediately went viral. (Polymarket’s ad featured a crush of athletes and celebrities horsing around at Polymarket’s offices, including LeBron James, Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Rajon Rondo, Reggie Bush, Spike Lee, and Emily Ratajkowski; Betr’s ad starred Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier from Entourage.)
Within hours the Novig ad had racked up millions of views across X/Twitter and Instagram.
“Sydney is great at captivating audiences and being the center of attention,” Fortinsky told FOS in an interview Wednesday afternoon after the ad dropped. “In some sense, it forces us into the national discourse.”
