Polymarket: We’ve just signed LeBron James to kick off our football season of sports event contracts. Who do you have?
Novig: Hold my beer.
Sports event market app Novig today announced a deal with superhyped actress Sydney Sweeney to kick off football week with almost no wardrobe and one blunt sales line. The Euphoria TV show and multi-movie star stars in Novig’s first national campaign, a racy spot built to stop the timeline scroll as NFL Week 1 begins tonight. “Think you know sports? Prove it,” she says, before two footballs become the only cover across her chest.
The rest of the minute-long film keeps that dare going. She sits on a hoop with a basketball in hand, holds a soccer ball with her feet, and later stretches across a billiards table. “You can’t trade this,” she says. “I just look good here.” Then comes the product claim Novig wants traders to remember: no contracts on wars, deaths, or politics. Just sports. It’s an interesting public relations angle, as sports event contracts are under incredible scrutiny themselves by state lawmakers and the media.
The commercial is built to be unmissable
Novig posted the cut on X with the caption “Confirmed: Sydney Sweeney knows ball.” The official version is on YouTube as Novig is Just Sports. Pads, a racket, a mask, and a branded jersey stand in for clothes while she cycles through football, basketball, soccer, tennis, hockey, and baseball.
Novig is new to the officially federally certified exchange market, and while they’ve signed a local team deal with the New York Mets, this is their first national push. There are many things you can say about this siren salacious ad, but one thing you can’t say: that it will be quickly ignored. Everything Sydney Sweeney has done online has gone viral of late. There may come a time when that tires out, but that day is not today [shout out to Silo on Apple TV]
The timing is quite expected. Novig dropped the film as NFL talk is already everywhere, then said the buy will run across digital, social, online video, and out-of-home through the season. This is not a one-day meme drop. It is the opening chapter of a football-calendar campaign.
Sweeney took equity and helped write the joke
The stake matters more than the stills. Sweeney joined Novig as a strategic partner and equity holder, according to the company’s campaign announcement. The size of that stake has not been disclosed. But this follows what other platforms are doing with A-list athletes, such as Giannis and Kalshi.
Sweeney says she helped shape the Novig ad idea while filming Gundam and didn’t want to be a rented face. “The campaign was about embracing a fun idea,” she said. “The concept is simple: cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports.” That’s obviously not exactly true given the persona and nature of the ad, but sports wagering, of course, is the ultimate point.
Sweeney, a savvy young Hollywood actress, first approached the company as an investor after reviewing the category. Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky confirmed that she drove both the look and the wording. The ownership piece is the real headline under the viral photos, as it suggests a long-term relationship.
Fortinsky sold the sports-only border in comments. “Our focus is sports,” he said. “Sydney helped bring that message to life in a way that’s impossible to ignore.” A short companion spot leans the other way, with Sweeney warning that trading “takes balls” and so does “taking a timeout.”
Rival star ads and a familiar backlash
Days before this Sweeney drop, LeBron James rolled a star-heavy Polymarket campaign built around football season, first teased in an elevator clip. That spot packed a fake headquarters with famous names. Novig went the other direction: one star, almost no clothes, one sentence.
As you might imagine, the comments split online between fantastic get for Novig by attaching themselves to Sweeney, and colder comments about using sex to sell gambling. While both could be true, as any business knows, the only opinions that matter come from targeted customers and how they may respond. With broad messaging like this, it’s often hard to measure ROI from a single spot, but a significant bump in attention to Novig is now certain.
Sweeney has heard this argument before about her ads being too sexual. Her American Eagle “great jeans” work set off a culture fight. But again, what gets fought over on social media and what moves product are not necessarily the same.
The real test will be quieter than the comments section. After the screenshots and social shares fade, will people open Novig because the boards stay on games, or will they remember only the Sweeney footballs? For now, the ad has done the job a season-opening spot is supposed to do. It made a young brand impossible to miss.
References
1. New York Post — Sydney Sweeney bares all in racy advertisement for new prediction market
2. Page Six — Sydney Sweeney strips down in cheeky new Novig ad
3. Variety — Sydney Sweeney goes nude in provocative ad for Novig
4. TMZ — Sydney Sweeney strips down to promote Novig
5. Novig — Sydney Sweeney teams up for “Just Sports” campaign
6. Complex — Exclusive: Sydney Sweeney talks Novig partnership
7. Covers — Sydney Sweeney stars in Novig sports prediction market ad
8. InGame — Sydney Sweeney stars in racy ad for Novig
9. For The Win — Sweeney’s Novig role goes beyond the ad
10. Novig on X — “Confirmed: Sydney Sweeney knows ball.”
11. The Comeback — Social reaction to the Novig campaign
12. Irish Star — Online backlash to the campaign
13. New York Post — LeBron James partnering with Polymarket
14. New York Post — American Eagle jeans ad controversy
15. YouTube — Novig is Just Sports
