Sydney Sweeney is once again at the center of online controversy, with female athletes around the world speaking out against the actress’s latest project—an ad for sports trading app Novig.
In a minute-long video, the Euphoria actress promoted the prediction market platform ahead of football season, cutting between shots of her almost entirely nude alongside sport-themed props, as she explains how Novig is distinct from other prediction markets like Polymarket or Kalshi.
“No betting on wars or deaths, and no politics. Just you and your take on sports,” Sweeney says.
In some scenes, Sweeney wore only sports gear and underwear, while in others, she used objects like a basketball hoop or footballs to cover her body, repeatedly saying “sports.”
The same day of the release, on September 9, Novig also announced that Sweeney’s involvement was more than just part of the marketing campaign. The actress is joining the platform as a strategic partner and equity holder.
“Pissed off about this ad”
Unsurprisingly, the video quickly went viral on social media platforms like X, Threads, Instagram, and TikTok.
But beyond reaching its target demographic—a male audience looking to bet on sports—the video also reached the feeds of female athletes who are cliticizing the video’s role in sexualizing women in sports.
“It is that deep. If you don’t understand why a woman in sports is pissed off about this ad . . . that tells me you never felt like you were out of place or like you didn’t belong in a sports environment,” Canadian alpine skier Cassidy Gray said on TikTok.
Other women athletes chose to voice their concerns through TikTok video edits, as did Paralympian long jump athlete Beatriz Haz, who shared a highlights reel with a headline that read “Instead of watching Sydney Sweeney’s ad let’s watch actual women in sports.”
Haz’s caption on TikTok read, “she’s setting women back so much. Women in sports do not need to be sexualized. We deserve to compete at the peak of our ability and be seen as athletes.”
Many others, whether professional athletes or not, have followed the similar format as a form of protest against Sweeney’s work, posting compilations of women in sports to the tune of Dua Lipa’s Training Season, and Sade’s Pearl.
Defenders of the ad point out that the video itself is promoting a predictions market platform, and is in no way related to women in sports, claiming the backlash is somewhat unfounded.
As one user said on X: “Everyone’s mad about Sydney Sweeney not representing women’s sports well but that entire ad was specifically for men with gambling problems and had nothing to do with women’s sports lol.”
But for critics, the creative direction of the ad—featuring Sweeney in compromising positions alongside sports attire—is feeding into the sexualization of women in sports, which athletes have long pushed back on.
“The ad just ruins everyone’s perception on women’s ability to be athletes. Yes It’s for a sports gambling app but she’s setting woman back and keeping us from being taken seriously as athletes,” Haz said in the comment section of her video.
We’ve reached out to Novig for comment.
“Exactly what they want”
The Novig video is not the first marketing campaign from Sweeney to receive backlash from the public. Last year, Sweeney received criticism for an American Eagle ad that featured a play on words between “jeans” and “genes,” which critics said was alluding to eugenics.
But Sweeney’s most recent controversial ad also raises questions around the rising popularity (and normalization) of sports betting in the U.S., particularly thanks to platforms like Kalsi, Polymarket, and Novig.
One user said on X,”I feel like the backlash . . . is giving that company exactly what they want. the discourse is now about women being sexualized and objectified in sports, instead of a conversation about how damaging sports betting is.”
Another added, “Selling gambling by selling sex. Society is crumbling before our eyes.