The Series B round was led by Pantera Capital, with Multicoin Capital, Makers Fund and Edge Equity joining in. Existing investors Forerunner, Perceptive Ventures and NFX also participated. With this latest raise, the company’s total funding now tops $105 million.

The company previously closed an $18 million Series A round, which helped it expand operations and refine its peer-to-peer sports market model. The earlier backing set the stage for the larger push it’s making now.

We are building the sports prediction market that Vegas fears.

The sports betting system is broken, and today we’re another step closer to fixing it.

We just closed a $75M Series B led by @PanteraCapital.

As we grow, we remain committed to our mission of building the most… pic.twitter.com/MLR4LGPZOF

— Novig (@Novig) February 18, 2026

Unlike traditional sportsbooks, Novig runs as a commission-free exchange where users trade against one another instead of betting against a house. The company says its order-book system allows odds to shift naturally based on supply and demand, rather than being set by a bookmaker. Over the past year, that approach appears to have gained traction. Trading volume jumped tenfold in 2025, and annualized volume has climbed past $4 billion.

Novig pushes for federal oversight as it gains more funding

At the same time, Novig is trying to redefine how it fits into the broader regulatory landscape. The company has formally applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for approval to operate as a Designated Contract Market (DCM). If granted, that status would allow Novig to function as a federally regulated exchange and potentially make its platform available in all 50 states, similar to Kalshi.

The application could prove important as much of the sports betting industry operates under state-by-state rules. By contrast, a CFTC-regulated exchange would fall under federal supervision, similar to other derivatives markets.

Novig’s founders say their goal is to build a fairer system for sports traders. Traditional sportsbooks typically bake in a commission, commonly known as the “vig,” and may limit or restrict customers who win consistently. Novig argues its structure removes hidden fees and does not penalize profitable users.

“Our mission is to democratize and financialize sports markets, and we’re proud of the fact that Novig users are 10 times more likely to win than on traditional sportsbooks,” said Jacob Fortinsky, Novig’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. “We chose to partner with the best crypto venture firms in the world to further accelerate our plans to make Novig the most efficient and liquid sports prediction market in the world. Others are using prediction market technology to financialize new markets with unproven demand. We leverage it to fix broken markets where demand already exists.”

Pantera Capital’s managing partner, Paul Veradittakit, framed the investment as a bet on structural change. “Their peer-to-peer exchange delivers what traditional sportsbooks can’t: better odds, fairer market structure, and alignment between platform success and user profitability,” he said. “When 23% of users are profitable compared to 2% on traditional platforms, it’s clear this is a foundational change to the industry.”

Co-founder and CTO Kelechi Ukah said the platform blends sports fandom with transparent market mechanics. He said the team is building an exchange “by sports traders, for sports traders,” pointing to what he described as strong demand for a product designed specifically for that audience.

The new funding will go toward expanding liquidity, adding more markets and rolling out advanced trading tools.

Featured image: Novig via press release

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“Now that a mayor is in office, whether it’s this city or any other city, we have an obligation as a company to work with him to try to make the city successful,” Moynihan said Tuesday on Fox News.

“I’ve got 16,000 teammates who work just in the neighborhood here, and we’ve got to make it successful.”

The key to that, he said, is how Mamdani approaches “governing all the people in the whole city, and [how] he has to carry the budget and the tax base.”

Moynihan argued that the company’s success is partly tied to the success of elected officials like Mamdani and the cities, towns and states they represent.

He told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade he plans to request a meeting with the mayor-elect, calling the issue “important” to thousands of Bank of America employees and their families who rely on New York City being “great.”

In an interview with Fox News, Moynihan said, “Now that a mayor is in office, whether it’s this city or any other city, we have an obligation as a company to work with him to try to make the city successful.” AP

Moynihan believes that the future of NYC being successful is how the mayor-elect governs residents across the city. Dennis A. Clark

“As I look forward, I hope that the mayor will engage with us, and we’ll give him some ideas,” he added.

Mamdani’s win has inspired some right-wing voices to entice residents and businesses to flee the Big Apple to come their way.

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, for one, worked to recruit those eyeing a greener pasture by advertising with a large van covered in rotating digital posters, one of which read, “NYC business owners: Mamdani got you down? Come on up to New Hampshire for no Communism, less red tape, and less taxes.”

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan plans to have a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to discuss the future of the Big Apple. Christopher Sadowski

A Times Square billboard – reportedly funded by a super PAC supporting Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio gubernatorial campaign – invited New Yorkers to flee “radical socialist” Mamdani for the “freedom” promised in the Buckeye State.

Moynihan’s comments come after he announced a major initiative to hire 10,000 veterans over the next five years, a pledge he outlined during his appearance.

“We believe our company is a great company for veterans, and we believe we owe it to make sure we’re bringing those veterans into our company. Even if they come to work for us for five years and get a job somewhere else, we’ve given them a great start and helped them make that transition,” he said.

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September 22, 2025, 3:22pm

Today, on his 65th birthday, poet and memoirist Kenny Fries has announced the inaugural winner of a new annual award, the Kenny Fries Disabled Writer Literary Award, which “seeks to provide visibility to the next generation of disabled and/or Deaf writers.”

“As a ‘pioneer’ of Disability Literature, as I age I’ve become increasingly concerned about the legacy of Disability Arts,” Fries said in a statement. “Historically, disabled writers have been marginalized and denied access to professional education and training, and the lack of disabled mentors has caused the link between generations of disabled writers to be too often lost. My hope is this annual award will assist a disabled writer of a younger generation to become more widely known both in the Disability Arts community as well as in the arts world at large.”

The 2025 winner is Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, “a poet, rootworker, diviner, and clinical herbalist from Piscataway, New Jersey. He is the author of several books, chapbooks, and zines including WATCHNIGHT and SLINGSHOT. He runs balm in gilead herb shop in Kingston, NY.”

“I chose Cyrée Jarelle Johnson as the inaugural award recipient because his poems explode the boundaries of language, subject, and form,” said Fries. “His poems give us the opportunity to encounter those we usually do not meet in the pages of our poetry. He gives space to a wide array of people, places, and politics.”

“In a world where disabled writers are more likely to be written about by caretakers than published themselves,” said Johnson, “I’m grateful to be the first recipient of the Kenny Fries Award so I can continue to commit to my work.”

Johnson will be awarded $1,000.

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Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr in February criticized Verizon for its promotion of DEI programs and said it could be a factor in the Frontier deal.

Verizon said in a letter to Carr seen by Reuters the company was removing its “Diversity and Inclusion” website and removing references to DEI from employee training and making other changes to hiring, career development, supplier diversity and corporate sponsorship practices.

Verizon said it was removing references to DEI from employee training and making other changes to hiring, career development, supplier diversity and corporate sponsorship practices. Christopher Sadowski

The company will no longer maintain any workforce diversity goals and will drop a component of its management compensation plan that historically included a goal to increase the representation of women and minorities in the company’s US workforce.

“Verizon recognizes that some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination,” said Verizon chief legal officer Vandana Venkatesh in the letter saying the change were effective immediately.

Carr, a Republican designated by President Trump in January, told NBC News parent Comcast in February he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of DEI programs.

Carr said in a statement he was pleased Verizon is ending its DEI policies outlined in the letter. “This is a good and important step forward — one that promotes equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest,” Carr said.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr told NBC News parent Comcast in February he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of DEI programs. AFP via Getty Images

Verizon is nearing FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier.

Trump in January issued sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the US and pressured the private sector to join the initiative.

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Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.

Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” a book that describes a series of incendiary allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by senior executives during her tenure at the company. Meta pursued arbitration, arguing that the book is prohibited under a nondisparagement contract she signed as a global affairs employee.

During an emergency hearing on Wednesday, the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found that Meta had provided enough grounds that Ms. Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her contract, according to a legal filing posted by Meta. The two parties will now begin private arbitration.

In addition to halting book promotions and sales, Ms. Wynn-Williams must refrain from engaging in or “amplifying any further disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments,” according to the filing. She also must retract all previous disparaging comments “to the extent within her control.”

The filing did not appear to limit the publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, from continuing publication of the memoir.

“Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” was released last week.Credit…Flatiron, via Associated Press

Meta has vehemently denied the allegations in the book.

The book is a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a Meta spokesman, Andy Stone, said in a statement. Ms. Wynn-Williams was fired for cause, he added, and an investigation at the time determined that “she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.”

A spokeswoman for Flatiron Books did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Ms. Wynn-Williams, who worked at what was then called Facebook from 2011 to 2018, did not comment.

The move to publish the arbitration filing is one of Meta’s most forceful public repudiations of a former employee’s tell-all memoir, several of which have been published over the past two decades.

Meta executives have also responded online to Ms. Wynn-Williams’s claims, calling most of them wildly exaggerated or flat-out false.

It is unclear whether Meta’s attempts to claw back Ms. Wynn-Williams’s book will ultimately be successful. In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it is generally illegal for companies to offer severance agreements that prohibit workers from making potentially disparaging statements about former employers, including discussing sexual harassment or sexual assault accusations.

In a Meta shareholder report in 2022, the company’s board of directors said that it did not require employees “to remain silent about harassment or discrimination,” and that the company “strictly prohibits retaliation against any personnel” for speaking up on these issues.

And in 2018, Meta said it would no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration, following a similar stance taken by Google at the time.

Sheera Frenkel contributed reporting.

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