Novig Tops $125M in Opening-Week Sports Trading Volume

Novig generated more than $125 million in notional trading volume during the first week of its federally regulated sports prediction market, the company told CNBC in figures published August 18, 2026. The total covers the seven days after the platform’s nationwide launch on August 4, 2026, less than two months after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved its application to operate as a designated contract market in June 2026.

Co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky said activity peaked well above the daily pace that headline figure implies.

“Our highest-volume day since launching nationwide…was $26.3 million in trading volume,” Fortinsky told CNBC.

Parlays accounted for roughly one-third of the opening-week volume, and baseball markets drew more trading than any other sport, people familiar with the platform’s operations told CNBC. Novig also said its first-week sports volume surpassed the opening-week sports totals of Kalshi, Polymarket US, Underdog and DraftKings’ DKeX exchange, based on data the company calculated itself.

Novig’s Road From Colorado Sportsbook to Federal Exchange

Founded in 2021 as a sports betting exchange, Novig operated under a Colorado sports betting license before pivoting to a sweepstakes-based social sportsbook in 2024. The CFTC’s June 2026 approval moved the business onto a federal footing, and on July 30, 2026, the company announced a multi-year agreement making it the exclusive official prediction market partner of the New York Mets, which it described as the first partnership between a Major League Baseball club and a prediction market.

The nationwide launch that followed on August 4, 2026 brought instant live trading, deeper liquidity and expanded payment options, Novig said in its announcement. The company also said it has passed $6 billion in cumulative trading volume across its products, a figure it cites in calling itself America’s fastest-growing sports prediction market.

Five States, One Jurisdiction Argument

The volume numbers landed while Novig is in court against state officials in New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Mexico and Wisconsin. The company argues that the Commodity Exchange Act, the federal law governing derivatives markets, gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over its sports event contracts and preempts state gambling laws. The first test of that position went against the company: in August 2026, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York denied Novig’s request for a temporary restraining order, an emergency measure that would have stopped New York from enforcing its gambling laws against the platform while the case proceeds.

The CFTC has pressed the same jurisdictional claim on its own behalf. On June 12, 2026, the agency sued New Mexico in federal court after the state sued Kalshi’s exchange entity in state court, and it asked for a permanent injunction barring New Mexico from enforcing preempted state laws against its registrants. The agency’s release lists Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Wisconsin as states where similar fights are underway.

“New Mexico is the latest state seeking to nullify black letter law and decades of judicial precedent by imposing state gaming laws on federally regulated derivatives exchanges subject to the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in the release.

The agency’s posture toward the sector is not uniformly protective. It has also warned prediction market operators over deficient incentive-program filings, and state lawmakers have moved to put the platforms on notice over gambling concerns in parallel with the court fights.

Novig’s Opening Week by the Numbers

• More than $125 million in notional trading volume across the first seven days after the August 4, 2026 launch, per the company’s figures to CNBC
• $26.3 million on the platform’s highest-volume single day
• Roughly one-third of volume from parlays, with baseball the most-traded sport
• $6 billion in cumulative trading volume across Novig’s products, per the company
• $3.46 billion in taker volume across selected prediction markets in the week beginning August 3, 2026, rising to $3.55 billion the following week, according to Dune Analytics data cited by Gambling Insider
• Kalshi accounted for $2.48 billion of the first week’s tracked total and $2.52 billion of the second; Polymarket moved from $482.9 million to $545.7 million, and Polymarket US from $378.8 million to $369.9 million

Among smaller exchanges, separate Ticker Tracker figures cited by Gambling Insider show recent seven-day totals of $157.3 million at Rothera, $78.4 million at Underdog, $37.8 million at PropvolhetX and $4.9 million at DraftKings’ exchange. The tracking periods differ by platform and do not line up exactly with Novig’s opening week.

The Rules Novig Set for Itself

Novig’s launch terms go beyond the federal floor. The platform restricts accounts to users 21 and older even though federally regulated prediction markets can generally accept customers as young as 18, a restriction the company describes in its launch announcement as a deliberate choice rather than a regulatory requirement. In August 2026 it also introduced a responsible trading framework covering identity verification, deposit and loss limits, cooling-off periods and self-exclusion tools.

Fortinsky has said Novig will keep its product tied to sports and competition rather than follow rivals into perpetual futures and hedging products. The upcoming NBA and Premier League seasons are the next scheduled test of whether the opening week’s pace holds.