Early last month, Novig launched its sports-only prediction market platform in 47 states. Five weeks later (and with a bit of help from the college and NFL football seasons), the exchange has eclipsed $1 billion in lifetime trading volume on its CFTC-regulated forecasting app.
“We just crossed $1 billion in trading volume on Novig — five weeks after launching our prediction market,” said Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky in a social media post on Tuesday. “Onward.”
While $1 billion in gross notional trades within five weeks may be a far cry from the massive amount of activity that takes place on rival platforms, Novig’s crossing of the ten-figure lifetime threshold so soon after its launch represents an important industry milestone.
The Novig prediction exchange differs from other CFTC-regulated apps in two major ways:
Fortinsky has made headlines in recent weeks by reconfirming Novig’s commitment to remaining a 21+ trading service. “If we were to expand beyond sports we would have the same standard,” stated the Harvard University graduate on September 8th in reply to specific criticism revolving around Novig’s minimum age restrictions.
Currently, traders can use Novig to buy and sell “yes/no” prediction contracts in 47 US jurisdictions. However, the service remains blocked in the states of Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada even with the arrival of the 2026 NFL regular season.
On September 9th, Novig launched a viral advertising campaign featuring high-profile American actress and entrepreneur Sydney Sweeney. Once Novig’s CEO shared the advertisement, it was marked as “adult content” by X. It has been subsequently criticized by multiple Olympic athletes, according to Variety Magazine, which has brought to light those athletes’ condemnation of the video as a “naked sports betting ad” that engages in “sexualizing women’s sport.”
Sweeney, a former high school valedictorian who routinely made the Dean’s Honors List while studying business at UCLA Extension, is widely recognized in Hollywood not only for her double Emmy-nominated performances but also for her business acumen. Her Novig ad was (some might say “shrewdly”) released to the public on the first day of the 2026 NFL regular season.
In an interview uploaded in conjunction with the advertisement’s launch, Novig’s co-founder told Front Office Sports that Sweeney “initially approached us interested in some sort of equity partnership and the conversation really went from there.”
With the college and NFL football seasons now underway and the upcoming MLB postseason, Novig is likely to enjoy a continued surge in its sports trading volume. The popularity of making sports forecasts is particularly noticeable and prevalent in jurisdictions that have yet to formally legalize online sportsbooks, such as California and Texas.
Yet it remains unknown whether Novig will achieve a higher sports-trading market share among its prediction market rivals, which include Kalshi, Robinhood, Polymarket US, and DraftKings Exchange. Achieving $1 billion in total notional trading volume a few weeks post-launch is meaningful, but Kalshi is breaking its own records by attracting more than $2 billion in volume during single, 24-hour cycles.
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