Sports Prediction App Novig Secures $18M For Major Expansion

A fast-growing sports forecast market company is poised to make substantial innovation and product advances following a major investment.


- Sweepstakes sports forecast platform selected up $18 million in financing.
- Novig strategies to use the cash to update existing products, add more, and increase payment platforms.
- The app's users play standard sportsbook markets against each other, not the home.


Novig, a sweepstakes app that introduced in September 2024, announced on Monday that equity capital firm Forerunner led an $18 million Series A funding round. Y Combinator, NFX, Perceptive Ventures, and Gaingels also purchased the prediction market platform that provides commission-free, peer-to-peer sports trading.


"The support from a few of the world's leading tech investors, who think in our objective to equalize sports betting for great, is a powerful endorsement - not just of what we have actually developed, however of the future we're producing," Novig CEO and co-founder Jacob Fortinsky said. "This financing will allow us to scale our mission across more sports, more formats, and ultimately, to more users."


With the brand-new funding, Novig plans to expand into new sports markets and enhance its current ones, while developing new functions like leaderboards, group contests, and head-to-head trading. Novig stated it wants to add debit and charge card payments to the app, launch a complete web platform, and grow its engineering and product groups with the influx of cash.


Attractive development


Novig's growth is one of the piece de resistances for financiers. The company has actually achieved a 50x increase in regular monthly trading volume since last fall and has actually exceeded 2 billion annualized volume in Novig Cash.
The prediction market business said that more than 90% of its trades are peer-to-peer, which it says assists customer retention.


"Novig sits at the center of several key nonreligious patterns in video gaming and entertainment, namely that customers significantly are investing their time, energy, and attention with monetary items," Fawzi Itani, Principal at Forerunner, said. "The Novig team brings the most advanced and nuanced viewpoint to sports forecast markets. They not only deeply comprehend their target consumer, however are constructing a system that is more fair, community-oriented, fulfilling, and well, fun."


Peer-to-peer markets


Novig's platform, like numerous sweepstakes gaming operators, uses users free coins at sign-up. Customers can also buy Novig Cash, which can be redeemed for cash and rewards.


The sports forecast app, established by Fortinsky and Kelechi Ukah, operates in 41 U.S. states and uses lots of traditional-sportsbook markets on MLB, NFL, WNBA, tennis, PGA Tour, UFC, and more. Users can wager the chances noted or set their own, all while playing against each other, not your house.


"What we're developing isn't simply sports predictions - it's a true peer-to-peer market," Fortinsky stated. "We think users deserve a system that rewards ability, reflects true supply and demand, and gives every fan a fair shot. We have actually rapidly become the No. 1 sports forecast market in the U.S., and our organic development talks to the strength of our item and the passion of our community."


Scrutinized gaming


Novig's growth comes at a time when both sweepstakes operators and prediction platforms have dealt with legal problems in the U.S. Novig runs under the sweepstakes model, which has faced regulative problems, particularly in states with legalized sports wagering and/or iGaming.


Connecticut, Montana, and Nevada have banned sweepstakes companies from operating. New York legislators passed a restriction costs earlier this year, and California, which does not have any kind of legalized online gambling, had a sweepstakes-ban costs introduced this summer.


Meanwhile, forecast market business like Kalshi are fighting several cease-and-desist orders. The platform, which uses sports-related contracts and is regulated by the Trading Commission, suffered a setback earlier this month when a Maryland judge ruled versus Kalshi.