Sydney Sweeney stripped down for a new national ad campaign promoting Novig, a sports prediction market, and the actress holds an undisclosed equity stake in the company behind it.
“Think you know sports? Prove it!” Ms. Sweeney says in the opening scene of the ad, which shows the “Euphoria” star in a series of nude poses shielded only by footballs, basketballs and other sports equipment. She spins a basketball while perched on a hoop, appears in an underwear shot taken from behind and repeats that the platform is “just sports,” with no markets on wars, deaths or politics.
Beyond fronting the campaign, Ms. Sweeney is a strategic partner and equity holder in Novig, a role that grew out of early talks about her investing in the company. The size of her stake has not been disclosed. Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky said Ms. Sweeney helped deliver the company’s “sports only” pitch “in a way that’s impossible to ignore.”
Novig launched nationwide last month, describing itself as a federally regulated sports prediction market rather than a traditional sportsbook, with a 21-and-over age requirement. That framing rests on a legal theory that is far from settled. Novig and similar platforms argue that Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight of their contracts preempts state gambling law; roughly 19 states dispute that and are currently in litigation over it. Federal appeals courts have split on the question — the Third Circuit sided with the industry in April, while the Ninth Circuit ruled against Kalshi in a similar case on Aug. 28, finding that sports event contracts are not federally regulated “swaps” and that state gambling law still applies.
The disclosure of Ms. Sweeney’s ownership stake has drawn scrutiny amid broader research into the fallout from prediction markets’ rapid growth. A Wall Street Journal analysis of rival platform Polymarket found that just 0.1% of accounts captured 67% of all profits, while more than 70% of users lost money overall — a concentration the Journal described as leaving casual traders to “eat their lunch” of a small group of professional trading firms.
Ms. Sweeney addressed the Novig arrangement in a statement, saying, “I don’t like to just put my face on something,” and describing the deal as a genuine collaboration rather than a simple endorsement.
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