Afternoon Edition

September 15, 2026

Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky at the Front Office Sports Asset Class event Tuesday addressed recent criticism of the company over an ad featuring a nude Sydney Sweeney. Professional female athletes have said the ad hypersexualizes women’s relationship to sports. Fortinsky told FOS, “It really was Sydney who was driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging.”

—Ellyn Briggs

First Up

First at FOS: The WNBA players’ union said it was “deeply disappointing” that the NBA didn’t include the group in a letter to betting regulators.
The PGA Tour’s changes include a career-earnings provision that allows players to earn a spot on its top-tier series, but there’s still no pathway back for LIV players.
Before the NHL’s new CBA begins at midnight, teams are pushing to sign players to max-length deals before allowed terms shorten by a year.
Oxford is bulking up its police presence for Lane Kiffin’s return. Officers from Mobile and New Orleans will be in town to help with crowd control Saturday.

Novig CEO Says Sydney Sweeney Drove ‘Visuals and Messaging’ of Nude Ad

Novig

Last week, sports-only prediction market Novig released an advertisement featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, who appeared totally nude save for a series of strategically placed sports equipment. Since then, scores of professional female athletes from around the world have ripped the spot, saying it hypersexualizes women’s relationship to sports.

Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky responded to the backlash onstage Tuesday at the Front Office Sports Asset Class event in New York.

“As a company we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports, and it’s a huge component of our platform,” Fortinsky said. “We never intended to portray female sports. Sydney is an actress, the biggest movie star in the world. We’re a prediction market focused on sports. That is the story she was communicating.”

He indicated that Sweeney, who is an equity holder in Novig, served as the campaign’s creative lead: “It was a very exciting process to work with her, both on the commercial side and the creative side. It really was Sydney who was driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging.”

The goal of the ad, Fortinsky said, was to “introduce [Novig] to the nation” ahead of football season and “close the gap from a brand-awareness perspective” between it and prediction-market leaders, like Kalshi and Polymarket. “We asked ourselves who would be the best person to grab the attention of the public to make Novig a household name,” he explained. “Sydney approached us, but from there it was a very obvious decision.”

On X/Twitter, Novig’s post sharing the ad has garnered more than 12 million views; on Instagram, it has surpassed 47 million. That’s roughly 400 times higher than the company’s next-most-recent video post on the platform.

Novig formally launched in August. Fortinsky told FOS at Asset Class that the company “just passed a billion dollars in cumulative volume,” claiming that marks the fastest start of any prediction market in history.

For the Novig CEO, the attention from the Sweeney spot outweighs the pushback. “There are a lot of people that have feelings about Sydney as a person that predate this campaign. Working with her, we obviously expected the people who already hate her would be loud and vocal,” Fortinsky said. “Ultimately, I think she did a great job at conveying the essence of our company and we’ve been very happy with how positive the feedback has been overall.”

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ONE BIG FIG

Sticking to Sports

Front Office Sports

$1 billion

How much has been traded on Novig since its launch in August. The sports-only prediction market’s CEO Jacob Fortinsky, who spoke with Front Office Sports at the Asset Class event Tuesday, said it marks the fastest start of any prediction market in history.

LOUD AND CLEAR

Star Power

Nicole Pereira Photography/Front Office Sports

“You can’t build one of the best leagues in the world if you don’t have stars.”

— Gotham FC governor and co-owner Carolyn Tisch Blodgett at the Front Office Sports Asset Class event in New York City on Tuesday. Tisch Blodgett was speaking about how the NWSL’s high-impact player rule, also known as the Trinity Rodman Rule, increases teams’ ability to attract stars.

The rule allows teams to exceed their $3.7 million salary caps by up to $1 million for star players who meet select criteria for awards, national team involvement, or marketability. While Tisch Blodgett, who is also a co-owner of the New York Giants, emphasized the need for big stars in the NWSL, she is still in favor of league-wide salary caps, saying, “The idea that the Green Bay Packers can beat the L.A. Rams on any given Sunday is key to the NFL. It’s what keeps people watching every year. A salary cap and a competitive balance is a really big part of that.”

STATUS REPORT

One Up, Two Down, One Push

Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Yankees ⬆ The team clinched its 61st postseason berth—its ninth in 10 years—after beating the Twins on Monday in Minneapolis. New York won 8–3, which was boosted by a three-run home run in the eighth inning by Aaron Judge, his first homer since May 24. Judge missed more than three months of the season after sustaining a fractured rib in June. His return last week immediately drove resale ticket prices higher. The Yankees finished within three and a half games of AL East leader Tampa Bay.

Sports betting ⬇ The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA, and NHL, along with the unions representing their players, issued a letter urging state gaming regulators to strengthen enforcement against sports bettors who threaten players. “Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal line, and it is entirely unacceptable,” the letter reads. The group called on “all state gaming commissions and state policymakers to promptly adopt uniform rules and legislative guardrails to help address this behavior,” including a mandatory lifetime ban, streamlined reporting channels, and accountability for sportsbook operators.

Ohio State ⬇ After Saturday’s stunning 24–23 loss to Texas, Buckeyes football coach Ryan Day said the team is going “to make some hard decisions.” Ohio State blew a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter, which Day acknowledged as “extremely frustrating,” adding, “we have to win the fourth quarter.” Despite the loss, OSU’s odds to win both the Big Ten and the national championship have improved since Saturday.

National Lacrosse League ⬆⬇ Going into its 40th season, the NLL announced last week it’d be folding its teams in Philadelphia and Ottawa. That knocks North America’s main indoor box lacrosse league down to 12 franchises after it couldn’t find “viable paths forward” for both the Wings and Black Bears. Tuesday is the dispersal draft of the players from the defunct squads. But their loss is a gain for the remaining teams: The pool of players up for grabs includes star Jeff Teat, who is likely to go first to the Oshawa FireWolves.