A 30-day deadline
Missouri's attorney general, Catherine Hanaway, wrote to six companies on 17 September demanding that they cease and desist: Crypto.com, Kalshi, Novig, Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog. In her office's view, a sports "event contract" sold to someone in Missouri is sports betting without a licence, which state law forbids.[1][2]
Sports betting itself is legal in the state. A 2024 ballot measure allowed it, and Missouri's licensed sports betting market has been open since 1 December 2025. The state gaming commission supervises it, and the state takes 10% of gross receipts in tax. Hanaway said companies could not get around Missouri law by relabelling sports bets as event contracts. All but Novig, her office added, either let under-21s use their products or lack the safeguards to keep them out.[1]
According to Novig's complaint, its letter set a 30-day limit: stop by 17 October, or obtain a licence from the gaming commission.[2]
Two lawsuits on 16 October
Novig went to court on 16 October, a day before its deadline. It filed through Ludlow Exchange, LLC, the subsidiary that runs its exchange, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, against the attorney general and the commission's chair and executive director. Novig says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal derivatives regulator, approved it as an exchange on 16 June 2026. Under the Commodity Exchange Act, it argues, Missouri's gambling laws cannot reach its contracts. It wants the court to say so and to bar the state from enforcing them against it.[2]
OG.com Prediction Markets, the trading name of North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., sued on the same day in the Western District of Missouri. Its complaint, too, asks for a declaration and an injunction. It names the attorney general, the gaming commission's executive director and chair, and four other defendants.[3]
Novig's filing also says that an affiliate, Novig Laboratories, LLC, received a Colorado sports betting licence in September 2023 and launched there in October 2023. Novig's parent company withdrew from Colorado in April 2024, and a request to surrender the licence followed in March 2025.[2]
The same question, state by state
Similar cases elsewhere turn on one question. Is a contract on a sports result a wager, which states license, or a derivative, which the federal regulator oversees? Michigan has already pushed Kalshi and Robinhood out of its sports contracts, one through a court order and the other by agreement. Federally, the CFTC has proposed writing event contracts into its definition of a swap, and the federal appeals courts that have ruled do not agree.
Sources
- Attorney General of Missouri (United States) — Missouri Attorney General Hanaway Orders Unlicensed Prediction Markets To Cease And Desist Unlawful Sports Wagering (17 September 2026, English). The six letters, the state's position, Amendment 2, the market's start and tax, the age claims and the attorney general's statement.
- United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri — Ludlow Exchange, LLC d/b/a Novig v. Hanaway et al., Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (case 4:26-cv-01780, filed 16 October 2026, PDF via CourtListener, English). The deadline in Novig's letter, the defendants, Novig's CFTC designation, its preemption claim and the relief sought, and the Colorado licence.
- United States District Court, Western District of Missouri — North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. v. Hanaway et al. (case 4:2026cv00969, filed 16 October 2026, docket via Justia, English). The plaintiff, the defendants and the complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief.
