Novig is making responsible trading part of the operating rules for its federally regulated prediction market, adopting a broad framework that includes a uniform minimum age of 21, customer-set limits and requirements governing marketing, platform design and the monitoring of potentially harmful activity.
The standards are contained in a new Chapter 14 that Ludlow Exchange, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission-designated contract market doing business as Novig, has filed for addition to its rulebook. While several prediction market platforms already offer funding caps, trading limits, timeouts or self-exclusion, Novig’s framework also establishes responsibilities for the exchange itself, including reviewing new contracts for participant-protection concerns and intervening when trading patterns indicate possible loss-chasing.
“Responsible trading shouldn’t rest solely with the customer — it should always begin with the exchange itself,” Jacob Fortinsky, Novig co-founder and CEO, said in a news release announcing the framework Thursday. “By codifying responsible trading standards directly into our rulebook, we’re holding ourselves to the same high standard we expect of our participants and establishing a new benchmark for how federally regulated prediction markets should operate.”
The move gives Novig a direct response to criticism that prediction markets allow younger customers to trade sports contracts without the safeguards commonly found at regulated online gaming platforms. It also builds on responsible trading commitments Novig made around its federally regulated launch.
Framework reaches beyond account controls
Before a member places a first order, Chapter 14 requires Ludlow to provide plain-language information explaining the possibility of losing the full amount risked, how pricing and liquidity work, and that trading does not guarantee income. The platform must also display the amount at risk, maximum possible loss, and essential settlement terms before an order is submitted, while making positions, exposure, and realized and unrealized gains or losses accessible.
The rules prohibit promotions that target people younger than 21, appeal to financial hardship, use misleading “risk-free” language or are triggered solely by a member’s recent losses. Incentive programs cannot reward escalating deposits, losses or maintaining losing positions. Ludlow must also consider whether app features obscure risk, create artificial urgency or encourage rapid and repeated trading.
The framework extends to the contracts Ludlow lists. Reviews must consider factors including duration, volatility, complexity and how easily participants can repeatedly enter a market. Ludlow may decline to list a contract or impose tighter position limits, enhanced disclosures or other protections.
Monitoring provisions identify rapid increases in deposits or position sizes, repeated deposits following losses, attempts to increase limits and apparent loss-chasing as possible warning signs. Responses can range from educational prompts and direct outreach to suspending promotions or restricting a member’s ability to deposit funds or open positions.
Novig said it submitted the rules to the CFTC through the agency’s self-certification process on Aug. 12 and intends to implement them no earlier than the 10th business day following the filing. The exchange said all requirements will be available when the rules take effect except session-time reminders, which are scheduled to launch before the end of 2026.
Limits and timeouts already available on Novig
Novig’s app already displays responsible trading tools as separate options on the main settings screen. The Trading Limits page allows users to set purchase or order limits that take effect immediately upon saving. For the following 24 hours, an established limit can be lowered but cannot be increased or removed, matching the minimum delay required under Chapter 14.
A separate Time Out option blocks users from accessing their accounts, placing orders or otherwise using the platform for a selected period. The page also links to SelfExclude.io, which allows users to exclude themselves across participating prediction market platforms, not just Novig.
Novig’s Responsible Trading menu provides access to the new policy and a support helpline. The latter opens the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) helpline website, a free referral and information service for people and families facing mental health or substance-use disorders. It is a general behavioral-health resource rather than a helpline dedicated specifically to problem gambling or trading.
Other platforms also offer responsible trading safeguards
Novig describes its minimum age as the industry’s “only nationwide 21+ age standard.” However, Novig is not available in every state, excluding users located in Arizona, Michigan and Nevada, and it is not the only prediction market platform to require all customers to be at least 21.
Fanatics Markets also has a uniform 21+ requirement everywhere it operates, although its footprint is only 23 states. Most leading prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, allow users to begin trading at 18. Fanatics Markets also offers daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits, daily session limits, timeouts lasting from three to 365 days, and self-exclusion for at least one year.
Kalshi has a “responsible risk management” section within the “account & security” area of its app that includes a voluntary opt-out, personalized funding cap, trading limits and daily session-time limits.
Besides Fanatics, other sportsbook operators entering prediction markets have similarly extended their existing responsible gaming systems to their event contract trading products. DraftKings Predictions users can access cooling-off periods, self-exclusion and account limits, while FanDuel Predicts provides similar tools.
Novig’s distinction is therefore not that higher age limits or individual safeguards are absent elsewhere. It is the decision to place a broader set of obligations covering marketing, platform design, contract review and intervention directly into the rulebook of its federally regulated exchange.
Responsible trading becomes part of Novig’s pitch
Novig’s emphasis on responsible trading predates the new rulebook chapter. Shortly before its regulated platform launched, the company announced it had hired Adam Warrington, who was previously vice president of responsible gaming at FanDuel. Warrington oversees Novig’s responsible trading strategy and communications.
The focus comes as prediction market safeguards have caused divisions within the problem gambling field. In May, the National Council on Problem Gambling accepted a $2 million, two-year investment from Kalshi and made the exchange its first member in a new financial services and trading category. The Michigan Gaming Control Board subsequently withdrew from the national organization, while the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling said this week it would also sever ties over the Kalshi relationship.
For Novig, placing its standards in an exchange rulebook turns responsible trading into both a regulatory commitment and a point of differentiation as prediction markets face continued scrutiny over age limits and participant protections.
