Novig vs PrizePicks: Three Products, Two Regulators, and Where the Cost Hides

Key takeaways

• PrizePicks runs three products in one app: Player Picks, a fantasy contest under state DFS rules, plus Team Picks and Culture Picks, which are CFTC-regulated event contracts.

• Two regulators: the fantasy product answers to state gaming regulators, the event contracts to the CFTC through Performance Predictions II, LLC, trading as PrizePicks Predict.

• Player Picks cost: no separate commission. The margin sits in the payout table, which on a fair-coin assumption implies at least 25% on a 2 or 3-pick Power Play.

• Event-contract cost: $0.005 to $0.02 per contract in service fees when you buy or sell, waived if you hold to close.

• Novig charges nothing to either side on a pre-game straight trade, on a published schedule.

PrizePicks is usually described as a daily fantasy operator. That was accurate once. Today it runs a fantasy product and a federally regulated event-contract business side by side, under one login and one entry fee, and the comparison to Novig differs depending on which one you're using.

What PrizePicks actually sells

Player Picks is the fantasy product. You build a lineup of two to six player projections, call each more or less, and get paid from a published table. It can't be submitted as a single pick, and Colorado requires at least three. Since August 2025 the whole US offering is peer-to-peer: lineups are matched into groups by pick count, experience level and start time, from 315 competitors on a 2-pick up to 940 on a 6-pick.

Team Picks and Culture Picks are something else. They're single-outcome Yes or No contracts, priced between $0.00 and $1.00 with the crowd setting the price, covering winners, spreads, totals, futures, award shows and music charts. They're CFTC-regulated event contracts offered by Performance Predictions II, LLC, trading as PrizePicks Predict, a registered Futures Commission Merchant and NFA member. The contracts are sourced from Kalshi.

PrizePicks' own payouts page says the two components of a combined lineup are legally independent transactions, each governed by its own rules and prize structures.

Novig, by contrast, is one product: a peer-to-peer prediction market on real outcomes, running on a Commodity Futures Trading Commission Designated Contract Market designation. The designated entity is Ludlow Exchange, LLC, trading as Novig, designated on 16 June 2026.

Where the cost sits

Novig charges nothing to either side on a pre-game straight trade. Only takers pay trading fees, and the maker fee is $0 across all trade types. Live trades charge takers on a 0.03 coefficient against price times one minus price, which is $0.75 per 100 contracts at even money. Futures charge takers on 0.06, parlays on 0.10 already built into the quoted price.

PrizePicks charges differently for each of its products.

On Team and Culture Picks there's an explicit service fee of $0.005 to $0.02 per contract when you buy or sell. It's waived if you hold the contract to its scheduled close, so the fee is really a charge for exiting early. Combined lineups also carry an administrative fee, and PrizePicks reserves the right to adjust how a single entry fee is allocated between the fantasy component, the contract component and that fee.

On Player Picks there's no separate commission at all. The cost is the gap between what a lineup pays and what it would pay at fair odds.

What the Player Picks table implies

PrizePicks publishes its multipliers. A Power Play pays only if every leg lands:

Flex Play pays something back on a near miss and works out at 25% on 2 through 5-pick lineups and 32.8% on a 6-pick.

Two caveats belong with those numbers, and both cut toward caution.

The calculation treats each leg as a true 50/50. PrizePicks sets the projections, so whether a leg is actually a coin flip is the whole question. A player who reads the projections better than PrizePicks does beats these figures; the table is what it keeps from someone with no edge.

And these multipliers are only one of two ways a lineup can pay. They're the Minimum Guarantee, which pays on a perfect lineup. A separate Leaderboard Win pays the highest score in your matched group, and a lineup qualifying for both takes the higher of the two. PrizePicks doesn't publish how scores distribute inside a group, so the leaderboard path adds expected return that can't be calculated from public figures. Treat the percentages above as an upper bound on what the structure keeps, not a measured hold.

For scale: a standard -110 sportsbook line on both sides holds about 4.55% of the money wagered. That isn't a like-for-like comparison, because a multi-leg lineup is closer to a parlay, and parlays hold far more than single lines at any operator. What the table does show is how steeply the margin compounds as legs are added.

Getting out before it settles

Both platforms let you exit, on different terms.

On Novig a position can be closed at whatever the market will pay, because there's an order book on the other side.

PrizePicks has three exits. PrizePicks' help centre describes a five-minute window after submission in which most lineups can be cancelled for a full refund, excluding those containing in-game projections or a started game. Its terms of service state separately that entry fees are final. After that, an Early Payout slider appears on qualifying lineups, priced in real time off the current score and the picks remaining. PrizePicks describes it as promotional and can disable it. Taking it forfeits the Minimum Guarantee on unsettled picks. Single Team and Culture Picks can be sold outright before close at the current contract value, minus those service fees.

Where you can use each

PrizePicks publishes availability per product. Player Picks runs in 36 states plus Washington D.C. The Team and Culture Picks figures are stated inconsistently on its own page, with the body text and the summary block disagreeing, so treat any number for those two as unsettled. Nevada is free-to-play only. The "available in all 50 states" line on its marketing pages is true only if free-to-play counts, and the same help page says real-money games are not available everywhere.

Per its help centre, minimum age is 18 in most states, 19 in Alabama and Colorado, and 21 in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia. Its site footer gives a shorter 21+ list.

Novig is available nationwide except Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, minimum age 21, judged on where you are when you trade rather than where you live.

What PrizePicks does better

Simplicity on the fantasy side. Pick two to six, read a published multiplier, done. No order book, no price to watch.

Reach. The fantasy track and the event-contract track between them cover states that licensed sportsbooks don't, which is much of why it's grown as it has.

Upside per dollar. A 6-pick Power Play returns 37.5x. No single position does that, and the appeal is real even though the structure keeps more.

Scale. PrizePicks describes itself as the largest daily fantasy operator in North America and reports more than 20 million users.

Who each one suits

You want a large multiplier from a small stake. Player Picks, and the 6-pick is the product built for that.

You're taking a position on one outcome and want the cost visible. Novig charges nothing at entry on a pre-game straight and publishes a coefficient for everything else. PrizePicks' own single-outcome contracts charge per contract to enter and to exit.

You expect to close before settlement. Novig prices the exit off a live market. On PrizePicks the exit is a promotional feature it can withdraw, or a contract sale net of fees.

You live where neither sports betting nor prediction markets reach. Check PrizePicks first; the fantasy track has the widest map of the three.

Frequently asked questions

Does Novig or PrizePicks have lower fees?

It depends which PrizePicks product. Novig charges nothing to either side on a pre-game straight trade. PrizePicks charges $0.005 to $0.02 per contract to buy or sell a Team or Culture Pick, waived if you hold to close. On Player Picks there's no separate fee, but the payout table implies at least 25% on a 2 or 3-pick Power Play under a fair-coin assumption, and more on longer lineups.

Is Novig or PrizePicks better value?

They sell different things. PrizePicks Player Picks sells a large multiplier on a low-probability outcome. Novig sells one position at a market price with nothing taken at entry on pre-game straights. A bettor who can beat player projections may do well on PrizePicks in spite of the table; one who can't is paying a lot for the upside.

Is PrizePicks a prediction market?

Partly. Its Team Picks and Culture Picks are CFTC-regulated event contracts offered through a registered Futures Commission Merchant, with contracts sourced from Kalshi. Its Player Picks product is daily fantasy under state rules.

Can I make a single pick on PrizePicks?

On Team and Culture Picks, yes, they're single-outcome contracts. Player Picks requires at least two, and three in Colorado.

Why does a 6-pick pay so much less than fair odds?

Margin compounds across legs. Six coin flips pay 64x at fair odds; the Power Play Minimum Guarantee pays 37.5x. A leaderboard win can pay a lineup that isn't perfect, so the real gap is narrower than that, by an amount PrizePicks doesn't publish enough to calculate.

Can I use both?

Yes. They answer different questions and nothing about holding one account restricts the other.

Sources

PrizePicks payout multipliers, both win paths: prizepicks.com/help-center/payouts; prizepicks.com/help-center/potential-outcomes

PrizePicks service fees and event contracts: prizepicks.com/help-center/team-and-culture-picks

PrizePicks cancellation and early payout: prizepicks.com/help-center/refunds-and-cancellations; prizepicks.com/terms

PrizePicks contest types and pick minimums: prizepicks.com/ways-to-pick; prizepicks.com/help-center/player-picks

PrizePicks peer-to-peer matchmaking and group sizes: prizepicks.com/help-center/experience-levels-matchmaking

PrizePicks state availability and ages: prizepicks.com/help-center/where-can-i-play

PrizePicks Predict FCM registration and financials: prizepicks.com/predict-regulatory; prizepicks.com/press-news/prizepicks-becomes-the-first-sports-entertainment-operator-to-receive-fcm-registration-from-the-nfa

CFTC futures commission merchant register: cftc.gov/MarketReports/financialfcmdata/index.htm

Kalshi partnership and contract sourcing: prizepicks.com/press-news/prizepicks-launches-prediction-markets-offering-with-kalshi

Conversion of the US offering to peer-to-peer, August 2025: ingame.com/prizepicks-dumps-against-house

Novig CFTC designation: cftc.gov/IndustryOversight/IndustryFilings/TradingOrganizations/59390

Novig fee schedule, eligibility and age: support.novig.com/en/articles/16195057-fees-on-novig; support.novig.com/en/articles/16194031-eligibility-legality