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A Very Revealing Sports Bet

What’s going on: Well, it’s been a banner month for sports marketing and women. After Good Good and Callaway’s ad featuring a male golfer shoving a woman to the ground didn’t exactly move the game forward, the sports prediction market Novig gave it a swing. Its new campaign features investor Sydney Sweeney mostly nude, strategically covered by sports equipment, under the slogan “Just Sports.” What could go wrong? Female athletes quickly let them know. Former UCLA gymnast and NCAA champion Gracie Kramer called the ad “honestly infuriating” then answered with a viral reel of her career highlights captioned, “idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like.” Four-time Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus declared the ad “a kick in the face to every woman who had dedicated her life to perfecting her craft” and said that “monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport” is still too common. Novig’s CEO said the company “never intended to portray female sports” and defended the ad as simply Sweeney’s vision of promoting a sports-prediction market.

Trading at an all-time low: You’d think a prediction market could’ve seen this backlash coming. Then again, Novig seems pretty pleased with the attention, so maybe appealing to the “humping lump” demographic, as comedian Michelle Wolf put it, was the goal all along. At a moment when the WNBA and NWSL are expanding, women’s college sports are drawing massive audiences, and new women’s leagues keep attracting investment, Sweeney and Novig somehow reached back for one of advertising’s oldest and grossest plays. If Novig really wanted to hire a female spokesperson to emphasize the platform’s focus on sports, its execs could have considered the constellation of superstar women athletes playing right now, from A’ja Wilson and Paige Bueckers to Trinity Rodman and Naomi Osaka. The actual “Just Sports” content was right there. No strategic football placement required.

Related: WNBA Players Were Left Out of Pro Sports’ New Push Against Betting-Related Harassment — Despite Sounding the Alarm About It (Yahoo Sports)

“This body helps me make money [and] have fun.” —  US Women’s National Team star Alyssa Thompson says this mental trick helps her most when body insecurity hits.

Pick Six

More sports talkers you don't want to miss.

🫨 Aaron Rodgers aired some very intimate details about his breakup with Shailene Woodley. When asked about his comments, she laughed and walked away. Honestly, great clock management. 

👀 See why Taylor Swift had to miss the Emmys, and if there might be a new T&T duo on our hands. 

👗 Carrie Bradshaw’s iconic newspaper dress had two big sports moments in one week, one at the US Open and one at an F1 track. We couldn’t help but wonder: Is print back in circulation?

🏈 Arch Manning apologized after he called a fake AI video of a Texas coach slapping ESPN reporter Holly Rowe “hilarious.” Someone call a family meeting — and bring the media training.

⚽ Megan Rapinoe has a list of one for who should play her in a biopic and she nailed her pick like a penalty kick in her prime.

👟 Hyrox apologized and changed its rules after world champion Joanna Wietrzyk soiled herself midrace, was allowed to keep going, and eventually won. Maybe plan for all kinds of runs next time.

Skimmed by Mallory Simon and Margaret Wheeler Johnson. Fact-checked by Jordan Mamone.