Share 
Bonus TL;DR
- Actress Sydney Sweeney took on an equity stake and creative director role at sports prediction market Novig, helping mastermind the viral “Just Sports” advertising campaign that generated massive social media engagement.
- The high-profile campaign was designed to help the $500 million startup compete for attention against heavily funded competitors like Polymarket, which recently launched its own major celebrity endorsement push.
Sydney Sweeney became an equity partner and creative director at sports prediction market Novig before the company launched its viral “Just Sports” ad campaign, according to a Fortune report published Thursday.
The arrangement matters because it shows how smaller prediction-market operators are trying to compete for attention against better-funded rivals such as Polymarket, using celebrity partnerships that go beyond a standard endorsement deal. Fortune reported that Novig declined to disclose the terms of Sweeney’s stake or other details of the partnership.
Novig ties Sweeney to the business, not just the campaign
Fortune reported that Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said Sweeney approached the company because she was drawn to its exclusive focus on sports-event contracts and wanted to become a shareholder.
The resulting campaign, titled “Just Sports,” featured Sweeney wearing no clothes and covering herself with a football and other sports gear. The ad sparked debate over the sexualization of women in sports, but it also delivered major reach. Fortune said the campaign generated tens of millions of views across X and Instagram.
A source familiar with the matter told Fortune that Sweeney was a hands-on “mastermind” in the creative process, shaping the commercial and visual direction, including music, camera angles and script revisions.
That degree of involvement is unusual in gambling-adjacent marketing and suggests Novig was using Sweeney as more than a celebrity spokesperson.
Novig seeks attention as Polymarket spends bigger
The Fortune report framed the campaign against a broader prediction market marketing battle. Around the same time, Polymarket released its own celebrity-heavy campaign featuring LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Spike Lee, Emily Ratajkowski and Alexandra Daddario.
One report cited by Fortune said Polymarket is paying James $15 million a year under that partnership. Even so, Fortune reported that Polymarket’s Instagram post received fewer than 55,000 likes, compared with more than 1.2 million for Sweeney’s Novig post.
Brand strategist Shruti Saini told Fortune, “If you’re Novig, you probably can’t outspend Polymarket. So you have to out-attention them.” She also said Sweeney was “not even a simple endorsement—she’s a competitive weapon.”
Fortune said Novig is valued at roughly $500 million, while Polymarket is valued at more than $20 billion.
Viral reach does not guarantee long-term growth
The report also noted that Sweeney has taken a hands-on role in other brand campaigns. In October 2024, she appeared in a Dr. Squatch ad and later pitched a limited release of 5,000 soap bars made with her bathwater, priced at $8 each. Fortune said the product sold out within seconds.
But the piece also pointed to limits on controversy-driven marketing. Sweeney’s July 2025 campaign for American Eagle drew backlash over the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” and later disclosures suggested the company did not see sustained sales growth afterward.
That is the open question for Novig: whether a campaign that generated outsized attention will translate into lasting business gains. Fortune reported that Novig has not disclosed the size of Sweeney’s stake, the full terms of the partnership, or whether the two sides plan to work together again.
Source: As reported by Camila Grigera Naón.
