New York based startup Novig has just closed a $6.4 million seed round for their high frequency, commission-free sports betting platform.

The financing round attracted a number of notable investors and venture funds including Lux Capital, Y Combinator, Paul Graham, Joe Montana, Soma Capital, Innospark Ventures, Rebel Fund, Bayhouse Capital, Arash Ferdowsi, Austen Allred, Alan Rutledge, Ravi Sheth, Archon Capital, Palm Drive Capital, TRAC, True Culture Fund, CapitalX, and others.

‍The big idea:‍

• Instead of betting against the house, Novig allows you to bet directly against your friends or the general market through their exchange
  
• The concept is this solves one of the major problems with sports betting which is the house setting unfair lines and charging vigs that can be up to 8%
  
• Instead of making money from users bets, Novig will generate profits from institutional traders, data monetisation and market making
  

What’s next:‍

• Novig has entered into a decade long partnership with Full House Resorts for market access
  
• The full platform for Novig users plans to launch imminently, after a recent successful pilot test where they saw 200 beta users place 15,500 bets across over a thousand different markets

Zooming out:

• The Novig seed round closed just two weeks after Penn Gaming entered a $1.5 billion partnership with ESPN to launch ESPN BET this fall in 16 states
• Sports betting is now legal in 37 states and Washington, DC
• In just six years of regulated sports betting outside of Nevada, over $250 billion in regulated bets have been placed in the United States

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