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The sports event contract exchange the CFTC designated on 16 June 2026, and which has since sued the attorneys general of five states. Its designation order forbids any futures commission merchant from intermediating a trade or carrying a customer account, so the broker distribution layer that Kalshi is being sued over does not exist here.
Novig, Inc. was founded in 2021 to offer sports-based event contracts, and formed Ludlow Exchange, LLC on 14 October 2025 as a wholly owned subsidiary organised for the single purpose of operating a designated contract market. The CFTC granted designation on 16 June 2026 under section 5 of the Commodity Exchange Act. Its own account of how it got there is unusual and is pleaded in its complaints: it first took the state route, obtaining an internet sports betting operator licence from the Colorado Division of Gaming on 21 September 2023 and launching there in October, then withdrew in April 2024 after the state declined to adopt exchange wagering rules, surrendering the licence in March 2025. Its reasoning is that a licensing regime built for an operator that takes the other side of every wager does not fit a venue that takes no position and depends on matching buyers with sellers across a national pool. Since September 2024 it has also run a freemium and sweepstakes product in two virtual currencies, Novig Coins for free play and Novig Cash which can be redeemed for cash prizes after a playthrough requirement, and that product is still what novig.us advertises. Jacob Fortinsky is chief executive and co-founder. The name is a reference to the vigorish a sportsbook prices into its odds and does not charge.
Developments in which Novig is a named party, newest first.
The newest federally designated prediction market filed its fifth suit against a state attorney general in eleven days, and this one is in the state where a federal judge refused the CFTC the same relief on 28 July and said the exchanges were the…
Ludlow Exchange, trading as Novig, filed a 45 page complaint in the Western District of Wisconsin on 14 August 2026 seeking a declaration that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts the state's gambling statutes. It is its fifth suit against a state officer since 4 August, and it follows a federal court in the same state refusing the CFTC the same relief on 28 July.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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