Prediction markets enter NFL week with celebrity ads, while Connecticut targets nine operators

As the NFL season opens, prediction-market operators are spending heavily on celebrity-led acquisition campaigns, with LeBron James, Sydney Sweeney, Marshawn Lynch, Jeremy Piven and Pete Sampras all appearing in recent spots. At the same time, Connecticut has issued cease-and-desist orders to nine unregulated operators, a reminder that the sales push is running into state-level enforcement just as the vertical is getting louder.

1. Polymarket signed LeBron James, Eli Manning and Derek Jeter, while Novig’s “Just Sports” campaign with Sydney Sweeney drew major attention. As of Friday afternoon, Novig’s post on X had at least 9 million views.
2. Novig’s ad also took aim at rivals that offer niche markets on events such as when Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro may be removed from office. Novig said it has limited its own offering to purely sports, with Sweeney saying: “No betting on wars, or deaths…or politics.”
3. Kalshi also kept the celebrity theme going during the 2025-26 NBA season by giving a two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo an equity stake. The Wall Street Journal reported that Sweeney’s representatives approached Novig to express interest as a potential investor, and the company later granted her an undisclosed amount of equity.
4. The broader campaign push has been fueled by heavy capital spending after substantial funding rounds, with operators treating the opening weeks of the NFL season as a customer acquisition bonanza. The article frames this as the most frenzied campaign since the PASPA decision in 2018.
5. Connecticut moved in the opposite direction on 10 September, one day after the New England Patriots lost their season opener to the Seattle Seahawks. Governor Ned Lamont discussed the growth of prediction markets in Hartford, and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection issued cease-and-desist orders to nine unregulated operators, including Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog Predict.

For high-risk payment teams, the point is not just that prediction markets are buying attention like any other performance channel. They are doing it while state regulators are starting to test how far these platforms can go before being treated as consumer-protection problems rather than just a new trading category.