Overview
- Novig posted the 42‑second 'Just Sports' spot on Sept. 9 featuring Sydney Sweeney largely nude and using sports equipment to cover herself, and the clip has since been viewed tens of millions of times.
- Current and former female athletes across swimming, track, gymnastics and other sports publicly condemned the ad as sexualizing women and pushed back with training and competition montages to reframe what female athletes look like.
- Sweeney is an equity and strategic partner who says she took part in the creative process, and she responded to critics by posting covers from ESPN’s former Body Issue rather than issuing an apology.
- Novig and CEO Jacob Fortinsky defended the campaign, saying it targets users 21 and over and that the spot was meant to spotlight a sports‑only prediction platform, and no regulatory action has been reported so far.
- The episode has revived scrutiny of Sweeney’s past brand controversies and raised broader concerns that sexualized celebrity marketing for a gambling product could damage perceptions of women’s sport and increase reputational risk for the company.