WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky said actress Sydney Sweeney was heavily involved in developing the creative direction and messaging for the company’s controversial sports betting campaign.
  • Fortinsky defended the ad, saying Novig supports women’s sports but never intended the commercial to portray female athletes. “Sydney’s an actress,” he said, describing the campaign as a way to communicate Novig’s focus on sports.
  • The campaign sparked criticism from athletes including British sprinter Amy Hunt, Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns and former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer, who objected to how the ad presented women and sports.
  • The ad generated more than 40 million Instagram views, dramatically increased searches for Novig, and helped Sweeney gain 50,000 followers initially before she lost more than 200,000 over two days, according to Social Blade.

Novig chief executive Fortinsky confronted the backlash over the company’s Sydney Sweeney campaign during Front Office Sports’ Asset Class conference.

Female athletes had accused the commercial of sexualizing women and presenting a distorted picture of their relationship with sports, as reported by The New York Post.

Fortinsky challenged the idea that the campaign was designed as a portrayal of female athletes.

His response focused instead on what Novig believed Sweeney was communicating as an actress working with a prediction market focused on sports.

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“As a company, we’re hugely supportive of women’s sports,” Fortinsky said. “We never intended to portray female sports.”

He also drew a clear line between Sweeney’s role and the athletes who objected to the campaign. “Sydney’s an actress,” Fortinsky said.

“We’re a prediction market that is focused on sports, and that was the story she was communicating,” Fortinsky continued.

His explanation established Novig’s stated intention, but it did not resolve the sharply different interpretation voiced by female athletes.

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British sprinter Amy Hunt, Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns and former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer were among the athletes who criticized the campaign.

They viewed its imagery as sexualizing women and misrepresenting how women relate to sports.

Fortinsky also disclosed that Sweeney played a major role in developing the campaign’s creative direction. “It really was Sydney who’s driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging,” he said.

The Novig executive did not present that level of involvement as a complaint or an attempt to distance the company from the controversy.

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Instead, he praised Sweeney and said Novig was pleased with the work she delivered.

Fortinsky also argued that some of the hostility surrounding the campaign came from people who already held negative opinions about Sweeney before the commercial appeared.

Novig’s defense therefore extended beyond the campaign’s intended message to the actress at its center.

Sweeney’s contribution was not limited to appearing in the commercial or helping shape its visuals.

She approached Novig about a collaboration and became an equity partner, giving her a financial stake in the attention produced by the campaign.

That attention has been considerable by the measurements cited after the release. The campaign collected more than 40 million views on Instagram, while searches for Novig increased dramatically following its debut.

Sweeney appeared to address the criticism indirectly through her own Instagram activity.

She shared images of prominent athletes who had posed nude or partially nude for ESPN’s Body Issue, drawing attention to other instances in which athletes had presented themselves through revealing imagery.

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Her follower numbers also moved dramatically as the dispute unfolded.

Sweeney gained 50,000 followers during the advertisement’s first three days, then lost more than 200,000 across Sunday and Monday, according to Social Blade.

Despite the size of that loss, it represented less than 1% of her audience, which exceeded 25 million.

The figures placed the visible follower decline alongside the much larger scale of Sweeney’s established Instagram following.

Fortinsky’s remarks offered Novig’s explanation of what the campaign was supposed to communicate and identified Sweeney as a driving force behind the creative choices.

They did not erase the divide between the company’s intended message and what the athletes said they saw in the finished work.

Novig has celebrated the commercial’s reach, and additional campaigns featuring Sweeney are already planned.

The company appears prepared to accept the continuing distinction between its stated intention and the athletes’ interpretation, along with the controversy that accompanied its arrival in the national conversation.

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