Sydney Sweeney Loses 200K Instagram Followers as Athletes Blast Novig Sports-Betting Ad

Sydney Sweeney’s Instagram audience shrank by more than 200,000 followers in two days as backlash intensified over a nude sports-betting campaign for prediction-market app Novig—a reminder that influencer equity deals can move follower graphs as fast as they move brand awareness. Variety, citing Social Blade data, reported that after an initial three-day gain of about 50,000 followers when the ad dropped last Wednesday, Sweeney lost 136,848 followers on Sunday and roughly 68,000 more on Monday. The drop is still under 1% of her more than 25 million followers, Variety noted, but the velocity made the story.

In the 60-second spot, the Euphoria star appears fully or partially nude, posing with footballs, basketballs, a soccer ball and a hockey net. The Instagram post had about 1.1 million likes when Variety published Monday. Sweeney, a strategic partner and equity holder in Novig, said in a statement that the campaign was “about embracing a fun idea,” meant to “cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports” with “confidence, humor and a playful edge.” Variety reported Novig launched nationwide last month under a federally regulated framework with a 21+ age requirement.

Elite female athletes answered that framing directly. Four-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ariarne Titmus called the ad “an absolute joke” and wrote that she felt furious watching it, describing the campaign as “a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft” and asking how monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is “still a thing,” according to Mumbrella and Variety. The Sydney Morning Herald independently covered Australian athletes’ response, quoting Titmus and noting posts from other Olympians under a “This is what sport looks like” refrain.

Sweeney doubled down on Sunday, resharing Novig creative with a partner caption, Variety said. She also posted ESPN Body Issue covers featuring nude athletes on Instagram Stories, SMH reported. Critics argued those editorial celebrations of athletes are not the same as a celebrity-backed betting ad. Follower analytics of this kind remain estimates from third-party trackers, not Instagram’s official dashboards—an attribution both Variety’s sourcing and industry practice require stating clearly.

For influencer-economy watchers, the measurable unfollow wave matters as much as the quote war. Equity partnerships turn stars into product evangelists; when the creative collides with athlete communities already fighting for how women’s sport is framed, platform metrics become part of the narrative. Brand-safe takeaway for creators and agencies: sports-adjacent campaigns that center sexualized celebrity imagery will draw athlete pushback in 2026 as quickly as they draw views—and Social Blade can turn that pushback into a headline before the media cycle resets.