Polymarket made a splash over the weekend when it announced LeBron James as a promotional partner.
A few months back Kalshi made waves with commercials starring the actor Timothee Chalamet.
Now the stakes have been raised a bit, as Novig has debuted a commercial featuring Sydney Sweeney and about a half-dozen strategically placed balls.
While there are certainly better ways that previous sentence could have been structured, it doesn’t make it any less true. See for yourself.
And while the elitists among us might stick our nose in the air at Novig’s naked attempt to garner customers, know this: It was Sweeney’s idea.
She is the one who reached out to Novig after contacting other prediction markets, looking to both invest and lend her name (and image) to one of the companies, per a Wall Street Journal report.
It goes further: She is the one who basically came up with the idea for the commercial above, acting as the de facto creative director, Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky told the newspaper.
“She was a huge part of not only the creative process, but also the messaging,” he said.
Trade responsibly!
In addition to the racy ad above, Sweeney also filmed a 15-second spot in the name of responsible gambling.
“Trading on sports … takes balls,” she says. “You know what else does? Taking a timeout.”
Also notable in these ads — once you get past the fact Sweeney is mostly not wearing what one might consider “clothes” — is the language used.
While she does say you can “trade on sports,” she later notes — emphasis ours — there is “no betting on wars, or deaths, and no politics.”
“The term ‘bet’ or ‘gamble’ describes a consumer behavior,” Fortinsky told the WSJ. “People get so caught up in the semantics, and what we’re really trying to focus on is the structure, the actual product.”
Sweeney is no stranger to showing her body in ads, from last year’s controversial American Eagle campaign to her own brand of lingerie, SYRN.
