Novig

Is Novig safe?

Novig is a federally regulated exchange with a stricter age rule than its rivals: you must be 21, where Kalshi and Polymarket take 18-year-olds. It also offers time-outs that nobody can lift early. The weak points are a privacy policy that lets it use face scans to improve AI models, limits that can be removed a day after you set them, credit-card deposits, and a legal fight with several states that is far from over. We score Novig 47/100.

From sweepstakes to federal exchange

Novig was founded in 2021 by two Harvard students and first ran a betting exchange in New Jersey and Colorado. It left Colorado in 2024 and switched to a sweepstakes model with two virtual currencies, a common workaround for offering betting-style contests without a state gambling licence. When New York, California and New Jersey moved to ban dual-currency sweepstakes, that route closed.

On 16 June 2026 the CFTC designated Novig's subsidiary, Ludlow Exchange LLC, as a designated contract market. Novig shut the sweepstakes app and relaunched nationwide on 4 August as a sports-only prediction market. It reported more than $125 million in trading in its first week, about a third of it parlays, and RotoWire reports that it has raised more than $105 million. Trades clear through Bitnomial, a regulated clearinghouse.

Is Novig legal in my state?

Novig blocks Nevada, Arizona and Michigan and checks your phone's location each time you trade. Arizona's Department of Gaming had sent it a cease-and-desist order in June 2025, when it still ran its sweepstakes app, because only operators licensed by the state may take sports bets there, Covers reported. Everywhere else it relies on its CFTC status. States see it differently. Since launch Novig has sued New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Mexico and Wisconsin, and on 16 October 2026 it sued Missouri's attorney general, all to stop them treating its contracts as illegal sports betting. A New York court refused its request for an immediate restraining order, and in July a federal judge in Wisconsin refused the CFTC's own request to block that state's gambling law.

Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection ordered nine prediction markets, Novig among them, to stop offering sports event contracts in September 2026 and to let residents withdraw their money. The state said these platforms accept bets from people under 21 and from people on its self-exclusion list. We found no fine, so Novig's regulatory record still scores a little above Kalshi's, which faces court orders in several states. The CFTC has also proposed barring contracts tied to injuries, officiating and single plays such as individual pitches, which would cut into the in-game markets Novig promotes.

What data does Novig collect?

The App Store label lists your device ID and in-app activity as used to track you across other companies' apps, and links precise location, name, address, email and phone number to you. The privacy policy, effective 21 July 2026, goes further:

• Government ID, a selfie and a faceprint (face geometry) collected by identity-check vendors. Novig says it may use biometric data to verify you, prevent fraud and "improve products and services, including improving artificial intelligence models", and keeps it for up to three years after your last activity.
• Precise geolocation, the last four digits of your Social Security number, and payment details.
• Targeted advertising: Novig shares data and hashed email addresses with ad partners, which it says may count as selling or sharing under state privacy laws. It honours Global Privacy Control signals.

Using face scans from a compulsory ID check to train AI is not something we have seen in the other betting apps we score, and it is the main reason privacy scores 40. Deleting your data or closing the account takes an email or live chat.

Tools against gambling harm

Novig's time-outs are well designed: choose 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 1 month, 3 months or 6 months, and Novig says nobody can shorten or lift one early. It also points users to selfexclude.io, an independent list that blocks you on all participating prediction markets at once.

Its limits are weaker. Deposit and trading limits only start once staff confirm them by email, and you can loosen or remove them 24 hours after setting them, where PrizePicks holds limits for 90 days. Novig also accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover cards, a funding method many state sportsbook regulators ban because it lets people bet borrowed money. Its App Store listing claims users are "10x more likely to profit" than on rival apps, a comparison that says nothing about what any one trader will earn.

How to use Novig more safely

1. Fund your account by bank transfer, not a credit card.
2. Set a deposit limit and treat it as fixed, even though the app lets you remove it after a day.
3. If you want a break, use a time-out or selfexclude.io, which you cannot undo early.
4. Choose "Ask App Not to Track" on iPhone and turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser.
5. If the AI use of your faceprint bothers you, email Novig to limit the use of sensitive data, as its policy allows.

How we scored it

Security (54) is the strongest factor. The regulatory record (48) has no fine but repeated orders: cease-and-desist orders from Connecticut and Arizona, plus open fights with at least six states. Privacy (40) is pulled down by faceprint use for AI and ad sharing, and transparency and control (50) by email-only closure and limits that lift after 24 hours. Underdog scores 46 and Sleeper 51.