The Mets have added Novig as its exclusive prediction market partner, becoming the first MLB club to fill this new sponsorship category. While Kalshi, Polymarket and Novig have all signed league deals, this is believed to be only the third sponsorship of a pro sports team, following a pair of NHL agreements: Polymarket with the Rangers and Kalshi with the Blackhawks.
Novig, which touts itself as the lone sports-only prediction market product, received its CFTC approval last month and will begin its brand awareness campaign with ballpark, broadcast, digital and social activations imminently. In time, the goal is for Novig and the Mets to develop interactive gaming experiences that educate fans about prediction markets.
“We want to be really fan-focused with our partnership strategy,” said Mets SVP/Corporate Partnerships Zach Feldman. “We want to be always thinking about how do we improve the fan experience and how do our partners play into that? And then as well, we want to be innovative. … We want to be leaders in every emerging category.”
N.Y.-based Novig raised a $75M Series B in February after originally adding a $6.4M in a 2023 seed round in its original incarnation as a peer-to-peer sports betting platform. It raised another $18M in a 2025 Series A round.
Novig sought out the Mets because of geography and their reputation “as the most pro-tech, pro-engagement, pro-innovation of any of the sports teams, not just in the MLB,” said Novig co-founder & CEO Jacob Fortinsky. He added that brand awareness is his firm’s top priority, given how competitors — such as Kalshi and Polymarket — have become household names, but Fortinsky added that he would still be discerning and thoughtful about the best approach to future sponsorships.
MLB designated Novig as an authorized prediction market this week, enabling it to receive official data and operate within the league’s integrity framework. As attention and participation grow around prediction markets, as well as proposed legislation to regulate them, the Mets said they collaborated with the league on ensuring that this was a good sponsorship category in which to engage.
“We’re always thinking about what’s appropriate and what’s responsible. MLB was out at the forefront of this, as they need to be with any new category, and so we’ve been working diligently in partnership with them as they’ve gone and done their own diligence on prediction markets,” Feldman said, adding:
“From our perspective, any category, any brand that allows our fans to engage with the sport and our team in a more integrated fashion is something that we get excited about.”
Both Feldman and Fortinsky noted that Novig’s key differentiator is that it is purpose-built for sports. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket offer sports markets — in fact, sports constitute about 80% of all trading volume — whereas Novig exclusively offers sports contracts. The goal, Fortinsky noted, is “building an experience that is familiar to users of traditional sportsbooks with the efficiency and the social aspects and the fairness and transparency that come with prediction markets.”