Novig is positioned to become the next peer-to-peer sports trading platform to move from a sweepstakes model into a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated prediction market framework, after the agency approved designated contract market (DCM) status for Ludlow Exchange, an entity tied to the company.
The approval came the same day ProphetX relaunched its own CFTC-regulated sports prediction exchange nationwide and just five days after ProphetX received its final exchange approvals, marking the fastest approval-to-launch timeline of the CFTC’s prediction market era.
Both companies built successful peer-to-peer sports exchanges before seeking CFTC approval, using sweepstakes models that offered broader access than the state-by-state licensing approach used by traditional real-money sportsbooks.
ProphetX’s rapid relaunch now gives Novig a live benchmark. Novig executives say the company is positioned for a similarly quick transition because, like ProphetX, much of its trading infrastructure was already in place before approval arrived.
“Our matching engine, risk guardrails and clearing [and] settlement pipeline were built to institution-grade standards from day one,” Novig co-founder and CTO Kelechi Ukah told DeFi Rate. “This approval doesn’t start a build for us, it simply turns the regulated layer on top [of] our already proven infrastructure. This head start collapses our [launch] timeline to weeks while also enabling a seamless transition: same interface, same order book, only now federally regulated.”
Novig targets all 50 states this summer after CFTC approval
Ludlow Exchange’s approval came less than five months after its DCM application appeared in the CFTC portal on Jan. 21, making its review timeline shorter than ProphetX’s roughly six-month process. DeFi Rate previously reported that the January application listed Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky as Ludlow’s CEO and used the same San Francisco address associated with Novig.
Novig said in a press release that it expects to roll out nationwide this summer under the new federal framework. The company said CFTC designation will allow it to operate across all 50 states while adding market surveillance, protections against manipulation and insider activity, and broader compliance standards tied to federal oversight.
“Federal oversight allows us to scale within a framework built on trust, transparency, and fairness,” Fortinsky said in the release. “By aligning incentives with users and removing the structural disadvantages of legacy betting platforms, we’re building a fundamentally different model where participants aren’t playing against the house.”
Novig also said it has surpassed $5 billion in cumulative volume, a fresh growth marker for a company that said in February it had reached $4 billion in annualized platform volume. The company said the regulated platform will maintain a 21+ age requirement, a higher threshold than the 18+ minimum allowed by most CFTC-regulated prediction market platforms and closer to the age standard used in most state-regulated sports betting markets.
In a post on X, Fortinsky called the approval the “fastest designation of its kind in CFTC history” and said it marks the beginning of a new chapter for sports trading, arguing that sports event contracts should be treated as a legitimate asset class rather than a traditional sportsbook product.
ProphetX relaunches in 49 states with props, parlays and World Cup markets
ProphetX’s relaunch offers the first real-world example of how a sports-focused platform can transition into the federal prediction market framework. After receiving DCM and DCO approvals last week, the company brought its regulated exchange online Tuesday.
Just prior to trading going live, a growing list of self-certified contracts began appearing in the CFTC portal. By Tuesday afternoon, 20 ProphetX product certifications had been posted, covering major sports categories including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, combat sports and the WNBA, along with a dedicated multi-event parlay contract.
The relaunched platform offers a sports-betting-style experience, with World Cup, MLB and tennis markets featured on the homepage. Individual game pages include dozens of contracts ranging from moneylines and totals to player performance markets, giving users a broader menu than many existing prediction market platforms.
Parlays are also a major part of the launch. ProphetX has long promoted its request-for-quote (RFQ) system as a way to support multi-leg wagers on an exchange, and the newly certified multi-event contract appears to formalize that offering under the regulated framework. Users can combine markets across games and sports through a dedicated parlay builder integrated into the platform.
The company is currently promoting commission-free parlays as part of the relaunch. Outside of parlays, ProphetX’s help center continues to describe a fee model that charges users 2% of net winnings across settled markets rather than collecting commissions on individual trades.
While ProphetX describes the exchange as available nationwide, a state availability map on the platform excludes Nevada. Prior to the relaunch, the company said its sweepstakes product was available in 40 states.
In a Substack post Tuesday, ProphetX co-founder and CEO Dean Sisun framed the relaunch as a challenge to traditional sportsbooks and argued that sports prediction markets should be treated as a new asset class. He said ProphetX was built specifically for sports markets and highlighted the company’s order book and RFQ parlay system as the infrastructure behind that approach.
“With our central limit order book as well as a request for quotation parlay mechanism, ProphetX is bringing institutional grade trading protocols to the new sports asset class,” Sisun wrote.
More sports-focused applicants await approval
The back-to-back developments for Novig and ProphetX come as several other sports-related companies pursue positions in the federal prediction market ecosystem.
Several additional DCM applications remain pending before the CFTC, including Sporttrade and RSBIX. Sporttrade previously operated a real-money sports betting exchange through state-by-state sportsbook approvals, while RSBIX is tied to a planned U.S. version of overseas sports exchange Matchbook.
Other sweepstakes sports exchange platforms have pursued a different route that could allow them to offer prediction markets through partnerships with existing exchanges. Sports betting exchange operator Onyx Odds has applied for introducing broker registration, while sweepstakes sportsbook/casino operator Rebet recently appeared in the National Futures Association database with a pending futures commission merchant application.
ProphetX has become the first sports-focused exchange from the sweepstakes wave to relaunch under the federal framework. Novig’s expected summer rollout will provide the next test of whether established sports trading platforms can move into CFTC-regulated event contracts at scale.
The path forward is not without uncertainty. While the CFTC has signaled support for sports event contracts through both its recent rule proposal and its lawsuits challenging state attempts to restrict federally regulated exchanges, states, tribes and gaming industry groups continue to push back, particularly on sports event contracts. With multiple legal challenges still pending, the broader question of whether states can restrict federally regulated sports prediction markets may ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
This story has been updated to add comments from Novig CTO Kelechi Ukah.
