Crypto.com and Novig Sue Missouri as Hanaway's 30-Day Deadline Runs Out

Two of the six prediction market operators Missouri ordered to stop offering sports event contracts went to federal court on Friday rather than comply. Both cases sit in the Eighth Circuit, which has yet to decide the question that has already split three other appeals courts.

• Crypto.com's exchange, North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., and Novig's exchange, Ludlow Exchange, LLC, sued Missouri officials in federal court on Friday 16 October, asking judges to stop the state enforcing its sports wagering laws against their sports event contracts
• The suits came as the 30 days set in Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's cease-and-desist letters ran out: Crypto.com's letter was dated 16 September and Novig's 17 September
• Both complaints argue that the Commodity Exchange Act gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) exclusive jurisdiction over contracts traded on a federally designated exchange, so Missouri's gambling laws are preempted
• Novig asks for a preliminary injunction while Kalshi's appeal over Iowa runs in the Eighth Circuit, where briefing is set to end on 6 December, according to its complaint
• Kalshi, Polymarket, Underdog and Robinhood, which received the same letters, had not sued in either Missouri district, according to Gaming Intelligence

Two Exchanges, Two Districts, One Preemption Argument

North American Derivatives Exchange, which trades as OG.com Prediction Markets, filed in the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City (No. 4:26-cv-00969), before Judge Greg Kays. Ludlow Exchange, which does business as Novig, filed in the Eastern District in St. Louis (No. 4:26-cv-01780). Both name Hanaway alongside Michael Leara, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, and its chair, Jan Zimmerman; Crypto.com's exchange also names commissioners Kevin Spaulding, Kevin Cantwell, Sam Gladney and Roger Stottlemyre.

The legal theory is the same in both. Each says it is a CFTC-designated contract market, that its event contracts are swaps under the Act, and that Congress gave the CFTC "exclusive jurisdiction" over swaps traded on such a market. Crypto.com's exchange pleads express, field and conflict preemption and asks for a declaration and a permanent injunction. Novig brings a single Supremacy Clause claim and asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions. Neither docket showed a separate motion for a preliminary injunction by 19 October, according to CourtListener.

The letters, published by Hanaway's office, called each recipient an online sports wagering platform and gave it 30 days to stop serving Missouri or obtain a Gaming Commission licence and pay the 10% tax on adjusted gross revenue and licence fees of up to $500,000. Crypto.com's letter also said its terms allowed anyone aged 18 or over to trade, against Missouri's minimum of 21. The letter to Novig made no such point. Both letters said Missouri shares the view of what they called the majority of federal courts: that the Act does not preempt state law and that sports contracts are not swaps.

What Each Complaint Adds

Crypto.com's exchange says it has been a designated contract market since 2004 and launched the OG.com brand in February 2026. It says the letter was wrongly addressed to Foris DAX, Inc., not the exchange. Its sharpest practical point is that the licence Missouri offers may not exist: the constitution allows only two direct mobile licences for sports wagering operators, both already awarded in 2025, with the rest tied to licensed gambling boats and professional sports teams. It also argues that serving only bettors physically in Missouri would breach the CFTC's impartial access rule, and cites the CFTC's 9 October proposal to define sports event contracts as swaps.

Novig's complaint leans on its history. The Novig group held a Colorado sports betting licence from 2023, withdrew from that market in April 2024 after Colorado did not adopt exchange wagering rules, and asked to surrender the licence in March 2025. Ludlow was formed in October 2025 and designated by the CFTC on 16 June 2026. Novig says it adopted rules on 12 August 2026 limiting trading to those aged 21 or over and adding limits and self-exclusion. It describes the threat as felony exposure for promoting gambling, consumer protection penalties and nuisance abatement.

Missouri is at least the sixth state Novig has sued since August, after New York, New Mexico, Washington, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, according to CourtListener records. In Washington, the state's defendants moved to dismiss on 19 October. Neither exchange said how much Missouri business it does. Of the four recipients that have not sued, Kalshi has reportedly been in talks with Hanaway's office, according to Gaming Intelligence.

The Eighth Circuit Now Decides Missouri's Case, Not the Sixth or the Ninth

Missouri's letters relied on rulings against Kalshi, among them the Ninth Circuit's August decision for Nevada, and the Sixth Circuit has since ruled unanimously for Ohio and Tennessee. Neither court binds a judge in Kansas City or St. Louis. Missouri sits in the Eighth Circuit, which is hearing Kalshi's appeal over Iowa, KalshiEX v. Bird, and both Missouri cases will in practice be decided in its shadow. Novig's request for an injunction until that court rules is the more realistic ask: a judge reluctant to run ahead of the circuit may still be reluctant to let Missouri prosecute an exchange in the meantime, and that is what Novig is counting on.

Missouri's "Get Licensed" Option Is Thinner Than It Looks

The letters offered a choice, but Crypto.com's complaint argues that only one half of it is real if both direct mobile licences are gone. A state that offers no licence a newcomer can obtain is, in effect, asking the exchanges to leave. That matters for channelisation. Hanaway said in September that she wanted the exchanges brought under Missouri gaming law and taxed, and Missouri's 10% tax on a legal market that opened only on 1 December 2025 is the revenue Hanaway's office says these platforms avoid, but the exchanges argue that geofencing a national order book to one state would breach their federal duties. The age point cuts the other way. Novig, which says it has required traders to be 21 since August, was left out of the under-21 charge, which makes the dispute with Novig purely jurisdictional, while Crypto.com still faces a consumer protection allegation a court may find easier to sympathise with.

The CFTC Is Changing the Ground While the Cases Start

The commission's exclusion for licensed sportsbooks took effect on 19 October, and its proposal to define sports event contracts as swaps is open for comment until 18 November. Both complaints rely on the proposal, but a proposal is not law, and the Sixth Circuit held that the contracts are not swaps under the Act as written. The suits buy time rather than certainty.

Hanaway has the lawsuits she said were likely, and four operators that, so far, have not filed one. The Eighth Circuit's Iowa ruling, not Friday's filings, is likely to decide how this ends.