Novig, the prediction-market platform that raised $18 million over the summer, has been approached by multiple suitors interested in buying the company in recent weeks, including Kalshi and Polymarket, Front Office Sports has learned.

It’s not clear whether any formal offers were made, and the other companies that made approaches were not identified. Novig isn’t actively for sale, a source familiar with the matter tells FOS. 

“Kalshi has no plans for any acquisitions at the moment,” a spokesperson for the company tells FOS. 

Representatives for Novig and Polymarket declined to comment.

New York–based Novig—named for its lack of vig, or built-in commission—runs a peer-to-peer prediction platform for betting on sports outcomes using Novig coins or Novig cash (coins are unredeemable and for fun; cash can be redeemed for real money). The platform is available as an app, which currently covers leagues including the NBA, WNBA, NFL, and MLB.

It raised $18 million in a Series A funding announced in August that was led by Forerunner Ventures. In total, Novig—which launched publicly in September 2024—has raised about $33 million since its formation in 2021. Legendary NFL quarterback Joe Montana is also one of its investors. In its August press release, the company said it has seen a 50-fold increase in monthly trading and more than $2 billion in annualized volume since that public launch. The company declined to share how many people currently use the Novig platform.

Novig, available in close to 40 states, is currently all sports, unlike Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow users to trade on issues like whether there will be a government shutdown or whether there will be a “military clash” between NATO and Russia this year.

Kalshi and Polymarket, which have spent months jockeying for attention on the internet and were featured on Wednesday night’s episode of South Park, each raised money over the summer; in June, one day after Bloomberg reported Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led a more than $200 million investment in Polymarket at a $1 billion valuation, Kalshi scored $185 million in a funding round led by crypto-focused venture-capital firm Paradigm. In late August, Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, invested in Polymarket. Both Kalshi and Polymarket count the president’s son as an advisor.

Their approaches to Novig come after The Information reported this month that Polymarket received a takeover offer valuing the company at up to $9 billion, and that Kalshi is close to securing additional investment at a $5 billion valuation.

The sports event contracts offered by Kalshi and Polymarket have garnered controversy because they appear so similar to sports betting. Regulators in at least seven states have tried to rein in Kalshi’s offerings, and the company is fighting multiple court battles (most recently, the Massachusetts attorney general sued over claims the company’s sports offerings are indistinguishable from traditional sports bets offered by licensed operators). Meanwhile, Polymarket—which had been banned from operating in the U.S. as part of a 2022 settlement with the Biden Administration—is preparing to reenter the country after recently being cleared in a federal probe.

Prediction markets’ dealmaking activity has been anticipated since the summer, as companies look to capitalize on the NFL season, the busiest time for sports betting. Underdog Sports entered the prediction-markets arena earlier this month, announcing it will offer sports event contracts in 16 states through a deal with Crypto.com. Elsewhere, major pro leagues and traditional sportsbooks are very much aware of the growth in prediction markets; FanDuel recently announced a deal with derivatives exchange CME Group to enter prediction markets, although sports will not be part of the offerings, at least to start.

In an interview with Front Office Sports last June, Ted Leonsis—whose Monumental Sports & Entertainment houses an NHL, NBA, and WNBA team—talked up the advantage of having a portfolio of multiple teams: “Don’t sell short these conglomerates.”

Matt Rizzetta appears to agree. 

The 42-year-old Italian American investor on Thursday launched Underdog Global Partners, a corporate entity to house his sports assets. Those are Napoli Basketball, which plays in Italy’s top league; Campobasso, which plays in Italy’s third-highest division of soccer; Donna Roma, an Italian women’s soccer team that plays in the country’s second-highest level; and his latest investment, CPL Quebec, an expansion men’s soccer team that will play in the Canadian Premier League.

Rizzetta says he’s always felt like an underdog (hence the name). Yet he’s built an empire of Italian sports teams, intends to develop surrounding real estate, and one of his teams, Campobasso, is the subject of a four-part ESPN documentary, Running with the Wolves, that premiered in July; celebrity couple Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are Campobasso co-owners.

“We’re doing all this against the backdrop of sports as an asset class, which has just exploded,” Rizzetta tells FOS.

He has watched as billionaires like Josh Harris and David Blitzer as well as John Henry set up sprawling sports empires through corporate entities—Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Fenway Sports Group, respectively—and is well aware that private-equity giants like Apollo Global Management and CVC Capital are diving into the pro sports realm with billions of dollars at their disposal. 

Underdog is his attempt to prove he can “play in the same sports-asset sandbox,” Rizzetta tells FOS.

“I’m not a billionaire; I’m an entrepreneur who has worked my ass off for 16 years since I started my first business,” Rizzetta says. “This is a mission to prove I can play on a very large stage with amazing partners I’ve been blessed to have around me.”

Rizzetta’s general partners at Underdog include veteran fintech executive Dan Doyle, Angelo Pasto, a Montreal-based real estate pro, and financial services entrepreneur Joseph Greco.

Down the road, Rizzetta sees three ways for additional investors to get involved: owning a slice of a single team, taking a stake in an entire vertical like sports or real estate, or buying into Underdog itself.

On the real estate front, Underdog has plans to develop a new arena for Napoli near the Amalfi Coast (the team currently plays in the PalaBarbuto arena, which was built in 2003 and is more than an hour away from the Amalfi Coast). Rizzetta says the company is in discussions with investors, including private-equity firms and international family offices, to get that built.

“This is a potential multihundred-million-dollar real estate project for an arena near the Amalfi Coast,” he says. 

Rizzetta also envisions setting up something similar to IMG Academy—which is a combo prep school, training facility, and professional development hub for young athletes—although that’s just one example of the potential deals in his pipeline.

“I’m living my dream, and trying to prove we can turn this into a viable enterprise model,” he tells FOS. “The next chapter is going all in and building at scale.”

One NBA minority owner is suing another seeking to join the club.

RAJ Sports sued the Cherng Family Trust on Monday in an attempt to block its stake in the new Portland Trail Blazers ownership group led by Tom Dundon.

Dundon, the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, agreed to buy the Blazers for $4 billion in August from the estate of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, which first put the team on sale in May. The two sides “entered a formal sales agreement” on Sept. 12, and as part of that announcement revealed a group of minority owners, including the Cherng Family Trust, a family office and investment firm led by Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the founders of fast food chain Panda Express. 

RAJ Sports owns the NWSL’s Portland Thorns, the WNBA’s Portland Fire, and a minority stake in the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. They sued the Cherngs on Monday in a dispute where many facts remain unclear.

The Blazers’ current ownership, led by Allen’s sister, Jody, has no involvement in the lawsuit, nor do Dundon, the NBA, and WNBA, according to court documents. The lawsuit does not challenge Dundon’s pending ownership of the team. 

RAJ Sports is run by siblings Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, heirs to their family’s swimwear and investment fortune. In addition to the Kings, Fire, and Thorns, the RAJ Sports portfolio includes minor league baseball team the Sacramento River Cats, Kings-affiliated esports team Kings Guard Gaming, and more.

The suit was filed under seal in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where many business disputes are handled due to Delaware’s long-standing role as the preferred state for U.S. companies to incorporate. The only documents available publicly are a proposed order that a judge will sign if RAJ’s motion for a temporary restraining order is granted, and a supplemental information sheet that contains very little information.

The proposed order offers some context about the suit. It reveals that RAJ wants a temporary restraining order that would prevent the defendants from entering into any agreement involving the Blazers, including the deal that has already been announced. It seeks to stop Cherng LLC from committing “further breaches” of a July 24 confidentiality and exclusivity agreement, although it’s not clear what that agreement is related to.

RAJ was reportedly interested in the Blazers after the Allen estate finally put up the team for sale in May. About a week after the team was put up for sale, it told Oregon Public Broadcasting it was “aware of the recent developments regarding the Portland Trail Blazers.” RAJ also said then that “we regularly evaluate strategic opportunities across the sports and real estate landscape, and we approach all such considerations with diligence and discretion. At this time, we have nothing further to share.”

There were rumors RAJ was part of a different group that made an unsuccessful bid. In August, The Oregonian reported that RAJ was “known to be making a push and wanted to keep the team in Portland.” A source familiar with the matter told Front Office Sports last month that Dundon’s group intends to keep the team in Portland.

Under NBA rules, RAJ would have needed to sell its Kings stake to become even a minority owner in the Blazers.

Other minority owners who are part of Dundon’s group include Sheel Tyle—the cofounder of Portland investment firm Collective Global—and Marc Zahr, co-president of Blue Owl Capital. 

The NBA’s board of governors has to approve any final purchase agreement, and the Trail Blazers sale is expected to close by the end of the year. The Blazers are the third NBA team to sell this year so far behind the Celtics in March for $6.1 billion and the Lakers in June for a record $10 billion. 

The Lakers sale to Dodgers owner Mark Walter is also awaiting board approval. Walter is already a minority owner of the team. 

RAJ Sports declined to comment. The Cherng Family Trust, Dundon, the NBA, and the WNBA all did not immediately respond to requests for comment.