Following on from the American Eagle “great jeans” and bathwater soap sagas, Sweeney has once again found herself at the centre of a controversy, this time involving the new sports prediction market and trading app Novig.

The ad campaign for its launch features the Euphoria star posing almost entirely nude while strategically covering herself with various pieces of sporting equipment, including footballs, basketball hoops and protective pads.

Titled “Just Sports”, the minute-long advert sees Sweeney move between a number of setups as she explains that Novig allows users to trade on sporting outcomes.

At one point, she lounges naked across a pool table before joking that viewers “can’t trade this, I just look good here.” She then says, “No betting on wars or deaths, and no politics.”

As well as being the face of the brand, Sweeney joined Novig as a strategic partner and equity holder, with the company saying she helped shape the campaign.

Since the ad dropped on September 9, it has faced criticism on social media over its over-sexualisation and objectification of the actress, while others have taken issue with what she is actually promoting.

Novig describes itself as a sports prediction market rather than a traditional sportsbook, allowing users to buy and sell contracts based on the outcomes of games. But prediction markets have faced growing scrutiny over their similarities to gambling.

The discourse shows no signs of slowing down, with the mum of Sweeney’s Euphoria co-star, Zendaya, sharing support of a take on the ad campaign.

Zendaya’s mum ‘loves’ this take on Sydney Sweeney’s controversial ad

In her latest Instagram Stories, Claire Stoermer shared a post from fellow mother Sammy Seles, which begins, “I’m raising a daughter in the Sydney Sweeney era. And no, my biggest concern isn’t Sydney Sweeney taking her clothes off.”

Stoermer added her own endorsement of the post, writing: “I love this take!”

In the lengthy carousel, Seles explained that her issue isn’t with Sweeney choosing to pose naked, arguing that she’s a “grown-ass woman” who can “wear clothes, not wear clothes, make money, be sexy” and “capitalise on the attention.”

Instead, she questioned the wider message young girls are receiving about their bodies, writing: “I’m trying to raise them in a world that somehow tells girls BOTH: ‘Your body doesn’t define your worth’ and ‘But your body is one of the fastest ways to get attention.’”

“So no, I’m not teaching my daughter: ‘Women who show skin don’t respect themselves.’ That sh*t can stay in 1998,” she continued. “But I’m ALSO not teaching her that putting ‘EMPOWERMENT’ over absolutely everything makes it feminism.”

Seles argued that questioning the use of women’s bodies in advertising shouldn’t automatically be interpreted as criticism of women themselves, adding, “Guys. We can do nuance. I believe in us.”

Her main concern is teaching her daughters to separate the attention they receive from their actual worth.

“My daughter gets to be: strong. loud. smart. athletic. weird. ambitious. beautiful. sexy someday, if she wants,” she wrote. “But I hope she learns something even more important: Attention and value are NOT the same thing.”

And Seles stressed that she isn’t holding Sweeney personally responsible for the messages her daughters receive, writing, “Sydney isn’t responsible for raising my daughter. I am.”

“I’d rather teach my daughter how marketing works than spend her childhood pretending she’s never going to see it,” she continued. Ultimately, Seles said she wants her daughters to understand “the difference between owning your sexuality and being taught that your sexuality is your greatest currency.”

The post finishes by suggesting that the real question shouldn’t be whether Sweeney is a suitable role model for young girls, but, “Why the hell are we expecting famous women to raise them for us?”

“I’m raising mine,” she concluded. “And I’m raising her to question all of it. The ads. The algorithms. The culture.”

There’s another part of the Novig debate she found ‘so so interesting’

Alongside this powerful message, Zendaya’s mum shared a follow-up slide with a video from TikToker Coach Jackie J, which Stoermer described as “so so interesting.”

In the video, Jackie argues that the conversation surrounding Sweeney’s nudity is distracting from a much bigger issue: the rise of prediction markets like  Kalshi or Polymarket.

She explains that unlike traditional sports betting, prediction markets allow users to buy and sell “yes” or “no” contracts on whether an event will happen, with the price determined by what other users are willing to pay rather than odds set by a bookmaker.

Prediction markets are regulated differently to traditional sportsbooks in the US. Novig says its contracts fall under federal regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rather than the state-by-state licensing system used for sportsbooks.

Jackie points to this distinction in the video, saying, “And that’s how someone who lives in Texas, where gambling is illegal, could still make money betting on the World Cup.”

She also raises concerns about the wider potential harms of sports betting, saying, “ I think sports betting is bad because it’s extremely addictive. Most people who use it only lose money, and people threaten and abuse players when the outcomes don’t go their way.”

And while Sweeney makes a point of saying Novig doesn’t allow trading on politics, wars or deaths, Jackie argues that the sports side of prediction markets is concerning enough on its own.

Summing up her thoughts on the controversial campaign, she concludes, “I think that the fact that she’s not wearing clothes is frankly the least concerning part.”

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