Sydney Sweeney’s provocative new advertisement for sports prediction market Novig was apparently her idea from the start, with the actress approaching the company before agreeing to strip down for the viral campaign.
Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said Sweeney contacted the company about an equity partnership because she was uncomfortable with other prediction platforms creating markets centered on her personal life.
“She said, ‘I’m uncomfortable with other platforms that have markets on what color underwear I’m going to wear,’” Fortinsky recalled during an interview with Front Office Sports.
“There’s something clean about sports,” Sweeney reportedly told him.
Novig differs from several rival prediction platforms by focusing its contract trading exclusively on sports.
Competitors including Kalshi and Polymarket offer sports markets alongside contracts tied to politics, natural disasters and other events.
Fortinsky said Sweeney’s ability to command attention made her an attractive partner as Novig attempts to become more recognizable nationally.
“I think Sydney is great at captivating audiences and being the center of attention,” he said. “In some sense, this forces us into the national discourse.”
The strategy immediately generated attention.
Sweeney appeared nude in the advertisement while strategically using footballs, basketballs, shoulder pads, a tennis racquet and other sports equipment to cover herself.
The ad opens with Sweeney holding two footballs while challenging viewers to test their sports knowledge.
“Think you know sports? Prove it,” she says.
Sweeney then moves through a series of sports-themed setups as the commercial explains Novig’s central pitch.
“You can trade this sport,” she says while holding and wearing different pieces of athletic equipment.
One sequence places the actress on a billiards table, where she jokes that the activity is not available to trade on the platform.
“You can’t trade this sport. I just look good here,” Sweeney says.
The campaign adds another high-profile commercial partnership to Sweeney’s expanding advertising portfolio while giving Novig a celebrity-centered push ahead of the NFL season, per the New York Post.
The arrangement goes beyond a conventional endorsement deal.
Fortinsky said Sweeney now owns a stake in the company through the equity partnership she initially proposed.
The CEO also revealed that the actress is expected to return in another campaign focused on responsible trading, indicating that her involvement with the company will continue beyond the current advertisement.
Sweeney’s partnership comes as prediction markets increasingly turn to major celebrities and athletes to compete for attention.
Polymarket recently launched an advertising campaign involving NBA superstar LeBron James and former NFL quarterback Eli Manning, while Betr, the prediction company associated with Jake Paul, produced an “Entourage”-themed spoof that drew criticism from the television show’s creator.
Sweeney’s Novig campaign, however, has stood out because of both its provocative presentation and the revelation that the actress herself approached the company.
Her stated concern was not with prediction markets generally, but with platforms that allowed users to speculate on personal details involving her clothing and private life.
Novig’s sports-only model apparently appealed to her as a cleaner alternative, and the resulting partnership turned into one of the company’s most attention-grabbing promotional pushes to date.
With Sweeney now holding equity in Novig and another campaign already expected, her relationship with the prediction market appears likely to extend well beyond the viral ad that first put the partnership in the spotlight.
