Novig, a peer-to-peer sports trading platform, announced a $75 million Series B on February 18th, valuing the company at $500 million.

The round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Makers Fund, Edge Equity, and existing investors Forerunner Ventures, Perceptive Ventures, and NFX.

It comes as Novig applies for federal regulatory approval with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. CEO Jacob Fortinsky told SBC Americas that the company plans to phase out its sweepstakes offering and transition to a fully CFTC-regulated prediction market within the next six months.

He said:

"Our mission is to democratize and financialize sports markets, and we're proud of the fact that Novig users are 10 times more likely to win than on traditional sportsbooks."

The company's trading volume grew more than tenfold in 2025, reaching $4 billion in annualised platform volume.

Novig operates as a commission-free, leading sports trading platform in the U.S., proving strong demand for a trader-first alternative to traditional sportsbooks.

Unlike traditional sportsbooks that take a commission — the "vig" — on every bet, Novig matches users against each other on a trading exchange.

On a traditional sportsbook, the implied probability across both sides of a market often totals 110% or more — meaning the house extracts that spread as profit. On a peer-to-peer exchange, the implied probability totals closer to 100%.

The company went through Y Combinator in 2022 and raised a $6.4 million seed round in August 2023, led by Lux Capital. That round included participation from NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana, Y Combinator, Paul Graham, and several other venture firms.

But that model requires liquidity. And building liquidity in a fragmented, state-by-state regulatory environment is difficult.

Novig launched in New Jersey and Colorado in 2024 as a licensed sportsbook operator. The early traction was slow. The company then pivoted to a sweepstakes model in late 2024, launching in 42 states plus Washington DC.

Sweepstakes platforms avoid gambling licenses by offering users free-to-play virtual currency alongside purchasable premium currency.

For Novig, it worked. The company's volume increased more than 10x in 2025.

Now it wants to go federal, and the way to do that is to become a prediction market via the CFTC.

Novig has applied to operate under CFTC regulation — the same framework used by Kalshi, Polymarket’s US platform and others.

If approved, Novig would become one of a small number of federally regulated prediction market operators authorised to offer sports contracts. Kalshi currently dominates this space, with weekly volume approaching $1 billion and projected annualised volume of $50 billion for 2026.

Fortinsky said that

“We [Novig] chose to partner with the best crypto venture firms in the world to further accelerate our plans to make Novig the most efficient and liquid sports prediction market in the world. Others are using prediction market technology to financialize new markets with unproven demand. We leverage it to fix broken markets where demand already exists.”

How Novig’s infrastructure changes and morphs to leverage crypto will be interesting, but it’s clear that is where the market is heading.

At the end of last year, Kalshi started tokenising some of its markets on Solana — letting them leverage 24/7, permissionless, cross-border attributes that blockchains.

Pantera Capital and Multicoin Capital are both crypto-focused firms. Pantera has backed blockchain infrastructure including Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot. Multicoin has invested in Polymarket, Helium, and Solana.

(1) The prediction market gold rush is accelerating

The number of well-funded entrants in this space is growing every quarter. Kalshi raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation in January. Polymarket is reportedly valued at $9 billion. Fanatics launched a prediction market with Crypto[dot]com infrastructure in December. Coinbase integrated prediction markets via Kalshi in January. Robinhood relaunched its own offering, fully verticalised. Underdog partnered with Crypto[dot]com. And now Novig has raised $75 million.

(2) Crypto capital is flowing into regulated prediction markets

Pantera and Multicoin are not traditional sports betting investors. They are crypto-native funds that typically back blockchain protocols and decentralised infrastructure.

The contracts may be dollar-denominated and CFTC-supervised, but the underlying infrastructure, trading mechanics, and investor base increasingly resemble crypto markets.

The prediction market category is absorbing capital from three separate pools: traditional fintech investors, sports betting operators, and crypto venture firms. That cross-sector interest is unique to this sub-industry.

It’s pretty certain that the future of prediction markets, like all markets, are going to be onchain.

(3) The Regulatory story is to be written

Mike Selig's appointment as CFTC Chairman in January 2026 marked a huge shift. His public support for prediction markets — framing them as information discovery tools rather than gambling.

On the other hand, the pushback is real. 23 senators, Utah's AG, and Florida's governor have all raised concerns. The regulatory environment is more permissive than two years ago, but it is by no means settled.

Dustin Gouker covers the latest on this in the Event Horizon.

(4) The sports-first positioning is deliberate but difficult

Kalshi and Polymarket both cover politics, finance, entertainment, and sports. Novig is positioning itself as the sports-focused alternative.

Sports is the highest-volume category on prediction markets, and the category that most resembles traditional sports betting.

Polymarket and Kalshi are both seeing $2.5bn+ in weekly sports volume, and for Kalshi, sports contracts account for ~90% of the platform's market share.

But what does a sports first product in prediction markets mean?

Who is the customer? Is it a trader or a traditional sports bettor?

It will be interesting to see the direction that takes from a product perspective, and where Novig land if their CFTC application is successful.