Novig Preemptively Sues Wisconsin, Its Fifth State Lawsuit In 10 Days

Novig's complaint argues that Wisconsin has moved more aggressively than most states in pursuing enforcement against federally regulated event-contract trading, citing lawsuits the state has already filed this year against Crypto.com, Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase, and Robinhood. 

"Wisconsin has moved aggressively against federally regulated event-contract trading within its borders, suing Kalshi, Polymarket, and Crypto.com, and their affiliates, for offering the type of contracts at issue here. ... Novig, having just secured its status as a Designated Contract Market ("DCM") registered by the CFTC, brings this action to prevent Defendants from doing the same to Novig."

"Despite the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts, Novig expects that Wisconsin will imminently bring an enforcement action against it along the same lines," the company's counsel wrote, framing the fight as existential for its new sports contracts business. 

Novig also noted in its 45-page filing that it sets a minimum trading age of 21, three years above the age some rival platforms use, positioning itself as more conservative than Kalshi and others.

Wisconsin has already handed the CFTC a defeat this year. The federal regulator sued Governor Tony Evers, Kaul, and the state gaming regulator in April, arguing Wisconsin overstepped its authority, but US District Judge William Griesbach denied the CFTC's request for a preliminary injunction in late July, ruling the commission had not shown it would likely succeed on the merits. 

Griesbach also found that Wisconsin's gambling statute "seems to cover" sports contracts specifically.

The Ho-Chunk Nation has separately challenged Kalshi in Wisconsin courts under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, arguing that the platform offers a sports-betting equivalent on tribal land without authorization, though the tribe was denied a preliminary injunction earlier this year. 

The Ho-Chunk Nation is one of several tribes positioned to benefit from Wisconsin's new sports wagering model, which is set to expand legal betting beyond on-site tribal casino wagers to statewide mobile sportsbook partnerships, making the state a genuinely three-way battleground between prediction markets, federal regulators and tribal gaming interests.

Novig's Wisconsin suit closely tracks the playbook Kalshi has used in its own disputes with state regulators, including New York, where Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi at the end of July seeking a total of $36 billion in relief over what she called an illegal, unlicensed gambling operation. 

Nearly every state Novig has sued this month is already tangled in litigation with Kalshi or another prediction market operator, underscoring how the industry's legal strategy has consolidated around the same core argument: that federal CFTC oversight should preempt state gambling law entirely.

Novig previously operated as a betting exchange and, briefly, as a sweepstakes-style gaming platform before winning approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a registered designated contract market on June 16. Backed by a $75 million Series B round that valued the company at roughly $500 million, Novig launched its sports-focused event contracts in 47 states on August 4. 

Co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky told CNBC the platform logged more than $125 million in notional volume in its opening week, led by parlay contracts and baseball markets.