Sydney Sweeney’s Novig commercial helped push the peer-to-peer sports trading company’s valuation from $500 million to $2 billion after the ad drew wide attention. The campaign put Novig in front of a bigger audience fast, but it also drew criticism over how women in sports were portrayed.
Sweeney’s stake and the $2 billion mark
$2 billion is the new valuation tied to Novig after Sweeney’s ad circulated, up from $500 million in a matter of months. She had bought a stake in Novig and appeared in the sports betting campaign, giving the commercial a financial link that went beyond a standard celebrity endorsement.
In the middle of last month, the advertisement sent Novig’s name ricocheting across social media. On Sept. 16, 2026, a Novig ad featuring Sweeney was displayed in Times Square in New York City, turning the campaign into a high-visibility bet on attention as much as brand reach.
Charley Hull backs the campaign
Charley Hull, the LPGA standout, said she was not buying the internet controversy around the ad. In an exclusive interview defending the commercial, she called it a “big hoo-hah out of absolutely nothing.”
$500 million was where Novig stood before the campaign’s attention surge, and the move to $2 billion shows how quickly visibility can translate into a higher reported valuation. If the figure holds, the commercial did more than sell an image; it helped lift the company into a different bracket of investor perception.
Critics target women’s sports
Writers and athletes criticized the advertisement for its representation of women in sports. Ava Stampa wrote, “Sydney Sweeney is a disgrace to feminism, women's sports.” Jane McManus called it “Sydney Sweeney's prediction ad is cynical, unhealthy and reveals plenty about modern sports.” Nancy Armour wrote that Novig running the ad was an attempt to “demean the sweat and sacrifice of women athletes?”
Ariarne Titmus described the ad as a “kick in the face” to female athletes, while the source says the campaign used sex appeal to catch the eye of a mostly-male market. Magazine ran its annual Body Issue for years, a reminder that sports media has long sold athletic bodies as part of the product, but the reaction here centered on whether this version crossed into harmful territory.
The unresolved question is how much Sweeney actually invested in Novig. That number would show how large her direct exposure is inside the company whose value reportedly quadrupled after a campaign that drew both attention and backlash.
