Novig hires Underdog's Warrington to lead external affairs
Novig has hired Adam Warrington as senior vice president of external affairs. Warrington previously served as vice president of responsible gaming at Underdog. The appointment comes as Novig launches its prediction market product and after the company secured an exclusive partnership with the New York Mets. Novig announced the hire this week as part of its staffing for the new product launch. Warrington's role will focus on external affairs.
Warrington arrives from Underdog, the same company that just launched its own CFTC-regulated exchange UDX and stripped out partner reliance. Novig is now building a similar self-contained stack: it has the Mets partnership for user acquisition, and Warrington brings regulatory relationships and responsible-gaming credibility that speed licensing conversations.
For rivals still dependent on white-label exchanges like Crypto.com's, each new vertical-integration hire narrows the window to lock in partners before the talent pool and regulatory slots fill. The NFL season is the hard deadline: platforms need live liquidity by September, and Warrington's arrival signals Novig believes it can clear that bar without outside help.
Novig's team partnership and now a gaming-veteran hire follow the same vertical-integration playbook that Underdog executed with UDX and Fanatics just pursued with BGC, as sportsbook and fantasy incumbents build in-house regulatory stacks rather than rent exchange infrastructure.