Professional female athletes around the world are displeased, to say the least, about an advertisement for Novig featuring actress Sydney Sweeney.
The sports-only prediction market launched a spot last Wednesday, in which Sweeney appears nude save for a series of strategically placed sports equipment. Throughout the one-minute ad, Sweeney repeatedly says the word “sports” to emphasize Novig’s difference from other prediction markets including Kalshi and Polymarket, which also allow trading on current events, politics, and more.
The athlete backlash centers on the ad’s hypersexualized portrayal of women’s relationship to sports.
“Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is,” wrote Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus, an eight-time Olympic medalist, in her Instagram story. “How do we live in a world where monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”
A range of current and former pro athletes—including American rhythmic gymnast Gracie Kramer, Australian runner Bree Rizzo, and Australian swimmer Brianna Throssell—shared similar sentiments on their own social-media accounts, accompanied by photos and videos of themselves competing at the highest levels of their sports. Some athletes, like British sprinter Amy Hunt, addressed the matter amid competition. In a post-race interview on Sunday after finishing fourth in the 200m final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hunt said to BBC Sport: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.”
The backlash has since extended to female sports-media professionals and global sports-training centers, including the Australian Institute for Sport, which posted a compilation of women’s sports clips to its Instagram account on Sunday with the caption, “THIS is sports.”
Sweeney appeared to respond to the controversy indirectly over the weekend by posting a series of old covers from ESPN’s The Body Issue—for which athletes posed nude or semi-nude—to her Instagram story. (The Body Issue was an annual special edition of ESPN’s print product, ESPN The Magazine, which ceased publication in 2019.) Some non-professional-athlete social media users, meanwhile, have called out that Sweeney is not an athlete or involved in sports in any formal capacity.
Novig did not respond to a request for comment regarding female athletes’ responses to the ad spot.
Last week, Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky told Front Office Sports that Sweeney is an equity holder in the company and “helped craft” its sports-only messaging, noting that her endorsement “forces [Novig] into the national discourse.” He also said more Sweeney spots are forthcoming, including one focused on responsible trading.
Overall, prediction-market activity on the rise, and the start of football season has already proven to be a lucrative accelerant: According to a Bank of America analyst note released Monday morning, total prediction market volume was up 16% week-over-week, reaching a record $15.9 billion.
Per the same report, Kalshi currently holds 82% market share in the space, while Polymarket and Novig are at 9% and 2%, respectively. (Polymarket went on its own star-studded advertising blitz ahead of NFL kickoff, featuring LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning and a host of other athletes and celebrities in several unique spots.)
Novig did not respond to FOS questions about what activity has looked like on its platform since the Sweeney ad was released, but general engagement numbers surrounding the spot itself are staggering. On X/Twitter, Novig’s post sharing the ad has garnered more than 11 million views as of Monday afternoon; on Instagram, it has surpassed 40 million. That’s roughly 400 times higher than the company’s next-most recent video post on the platform. Google searches for Novig are up 1,100% versus last month, too.
No major women’s pro sports league or team has done a deal with a prediction market, but they are increasingly common in men’s pro sports. Polymarket is an official partner of the NHL, MLB, and MLS, and Novig recently announced a deal to be the exclusive prediction-market partner of the Mets.
