By PredictQ Team // Updated: August 2026
Novig is live as a federally regulated sports prediction market, available nationwide. That sentence would have been fantasy eighteen months ago. On June 16, 2026, the CFTC approved Novig’s application to run a Designated Contract Market through its entity Ludlow Exchange LLC, about five months after filing, one of the fastest DCM designations on record. The company relaunched on that license, and every Novig review written before this summer is describing a product that no longer exists.
Here’s what you’re actually evaluating in August 2026: a real-money, peer-to-peer sports exchange operating under federal oversight, with market-driven pricing instead of a bookmaker’s lines. Novig’s own positioning calls it the nation’s leading sports prediction market, built to give sports fans a modern way to participate in the games they love through pricing designed around fairness and transparency. Strip the copy and the pitch is simple. No house on the other side. No margin baked into the price. You trade against other members at prices the market sets, or at prices you set yourself.
What Novig Is
Novig was founded in 2021 by Jacob Fortinsky and Kelechi Ukah, both Harvard graduates, with the goal of building a commission-free sports trading platform. The company spent its early years running a promotional-model app while it pursued the harder prize: federal regulation. It exited that model with its 2026 relaunch, and the sweepstakes era now matters only as history. What launched in its place is a CFTC-regulated exchange for sports event contracts.
The product is sports only, on purpose. Novig’s taglines are “Just Sports” and “Built for Gameday,” and the company has been explicit that it will list no political, war, or financial markets. If you want to trade elections or interest rates, this is the wrong app. If you want the deepest pure-sports prediction market experience in the US, that focus is a feature.
How Pricing Works
Every market on Novig trades as contracts priced between 1 cent and $1, and the price is the probability. A contract at 60 cents means the market thinks that outcome hits 60% of the time. Win and each contract pays $1. Lose and it pays nothing.
Compare that to a sportsbook, which bakes a margin into every line. A standard -110/-110 spread carries roughly a 4.5% house edge before kickoff. Novig has no house. Prices come from an open order book where members trade against each other, and the exchange matches the two sides. The vig you’d pay at a book simply has nowhere to hide.
Funding and Trajectory
The business behind the app is heavily capitalized. Novig closed a $75 million Series B in February 2026, led by Pantera Capital, at a valuation around $500 million, pushing total capital raised past $105 million. Four months later, the CFTC approved the DCM application Fortinsky had filed in late January through Ludlow Exchange. Earlier applicants waited around two years for the same designation. Novig got it in about five months, and now holds the same regulatory status as Kalshi.
How Trading Works
Markets use sportsbook-familiar structures with an exchange engine underneath. You’ll find main markets (moneylines, spreads, totals), player props, parlays, and futures for season champions and awards.
Orders come in two flavors. Take orders accept an existing offer at the best available price and match instantly, like a market order at a brokerage. Make orders let you set your own price; your offer sits in the open order book until another member takes it. Anyone can make a market on Novig, which is the part sharp traders should care about most. Post prices you think reflect true probability and you’re quoting your own line instead of paying someone else’s.
Positions are flexible after the match, too. Cash Out lets you settle a straight trade early for a fixed, guaranteed amount, and you can increase or sell positions anytime. The one carve-out: Cash Out applies to straight trades only, not parlays. Parlay legs all have to win, same as anywhere.
Markets and Coverage
Coverage runs deep: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and WNBA, college football plus men’s and women’s college basketball, UFC, ATP and WTA tennis, PGA golf, and esports, plus soccer from MLS through the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and the Champions League.
Liquidity behaves like liquidity everywhere. Marquee events carry deep books and fast matching. Niche props run thinner, so Make orders can sit a while. The open order book means you can always see exactly what depth exists before you commit, which is more than any sportsbook shows you.
Novig Points
Novig runs an opt-in rewards program alongside the exchange. Points accrue monthly and reset each cycle: parlay orders earn 10 points per dollar traded, Make orders earn 1 point per dollar, The Daily Drop pays 100 points for daily challenges, and monthly challenges pay up to 175 points each. Points determine your tier, from Starter through Bronze (300), Silver (1,800), Gold (12,000), and Obsidian (60,000). Members at Bronze and above split a monthly cash prize pool, with higher tiers taking a bigger slice, paid on the 1st of each month. Points themselves never convert to cash; the tier is what earns your share of the pot.
Fees
Novig’s pricing model is no-vig and peer-to-peer. The exchange matches members against each other rather than inserting a margin into the line, which is the entire cost argument versus a book charging you -110 on both sides. For the full picture on account terms, read novig.com/terms rather than any third-party summary, ours included.
Pros
- CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market, approved June 16, 2026
- Available nationwide
- No-vig, market-driven pricing versus a sportsbook’s built-in 4.5% hold
- Make orders let you quote your own prices in an open order book
- Cash Out on straight trades, plus the ability to sell or add to positions anytime
- Winners welcome: no limits or bans for playing well
- Deep sports coverage from the NFL to the Bundesliga
- $75M Series B led by Pantera, over $105M raised
Cons
- Sports only, by design; no politics, economics, or culture markets
- Cash Out excludes parlays
- Thin order books on lower-profile props
- The regulated exchange is new, so expect the product to keep evolving
- 21+ only
Who Should Use It
Novig fits people who put real volume through sports markets and care about price above everything else. The no-vig model is the cheapest way to trade spreads and totals in the US, and the edge compounds with every trade. It also fits anyone a sportsbook has limited, because an exchange has no reason to ban winners. Novig’s own marketing claims you’re 10x more likely to win on Novig than at a traditional sportsbook. Treat that as their number, not ours, but the structural logic behind it is sound.
Skip it if you want multi-category markets. Kalshi covers politics, econ, and culture; Novig covers gameday and nothing else. That trade-off is the whole identity.
Bottom Line
A year ago Novig was a well-funded app with a regulatory dream. Now it holds a federal license earned in five months, trades nationwide, and prices sports markets the way an exchange should: openly, peer-to-peer, with no house skimming the middle.
The pricing edge was always real. The legal foundation finally matches it. Sign up HERE, start small with Take orders, and learn the order book before you size up.
Disclosures: PredictQ may receive compensation when readers sign up for platforms through links on this page. We only partner with platforms we evaluate as legitimate, but compensation does not influence our editorial analysis. Information accurate as of August 2026; confirm current terms on the platform before depositing. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. PredictQ supports responsible trading. Restrictions & requirements apply. Not available in all states. 21+. Event contract trading involves risk & is not appropriate for all. Consider if it’s appropriate for you in light of financial circumstances. See novig.com/terms for information.