The Barstool-PENN Entertainment marriage — now really more of a one-sided affair, as PENN has assumed full control of the Dave Portnoy-founded brand — faced its toughest test Wednesday when PENN fired Ben Mintz, host of the popular Wake Up Mintzy show, for uttering a racial slur while singing along to recorded music.
Mintz was rapping to “1st of Tha Month” by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony when he uttered the N-word while singing along. As a result, the longtime Barstool employee was fired by PENN, which fully acquired Barstool Sportsbook this past February for $388 million, after paying $163 million over three years ago for a 36% stake in the company.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports and face of Barstool Sportsbook, was none too pleased with the decision (emphasis added):
“I’m stunned by it, and I’ve been fighting tooth and nail, as has Erica (Nardini, Barstool CEO), as has Dan (Dan Katz, aka “Big Cat”), to keep Ben and say this is the wrong decision, but PENN operates in a world that we don’t operate in,” Portnoy said via Twitter. “They are highly regulated by the government, they’re issued licences for gambling that just as easily as they’re issued they can be pulled back. For anybody who has followed any of the states, and PENN trying to get legalized, and things like that, one thing’s clear: A lot of people hate my guts. They f**king hate me, they hate Barstool, they look for any lever, any excuse, to cause problems for us and pull the licences. PENN is convinced – and they’ve been very clear since they took over, it’s a zero-tolerance policy, you can’t do stuff like this – and really, we haven’t had an incident like this since they took over. And they believe there’s a legitimate chance lots of the states would pull their licenses because of this. PENN is a multi-billion dollar company. Without their licenses, they are a zero-dollar company.”
Emergency Press Conference – Ben Mintz Has Left the Building pic.twitter.com/31faJrI6Op
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 3, 2023
Mintz apologizes, but Portnoy keeps at it
Mintz, for his part, was immediately apologetic, saying he “meant no harm” in the incident.
This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric. I meant no harm & have never felt worse about anything.
I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself.
— Mintzy (@BarstoolMintzy) May 1, 2023
Portnoy, however, continued to rail against the decision by the company’s brass.
“Bottom line is this: I hate the decision, I don’t agree with the decision, but it’s not my decision to make,” he said. “And when we sold Barstool to PENN, we knew what came with it, we knew the guidelines, we knew we couldn’t do what Ben Mintz did.”
Portnoy went on to discuss the role Jay Snowden, PENN CEO, played in this decision.
“I love Jay, I trust Jay, I think we think about the world similarly,” he said. “I think he’s doing what he has to do to protect PENN Entertainment. I still f**king disagree with it, but that’s their decision to make, it’s their world, dealing with the regulators. My world is gambling. I told him, ‘If this was me, if a state wanted to pull a license because of this, I’d put it on blast a hundred-fold and be like, this is what we’re dealing with?’
“They feel like it’s their job to protect all of this,” Portnoy continued. “And the only answer is to fire Ben Mintz. And I still disagree with it. Maybe I’m naive. There’s just no way anybody could look at that clip and think the punishment fits the crime. It makes my skin crawl thinking a guy could lose his job on an innocent mistake — yes, horrible, but clearly no intent, clearly in shambles about it.”
This kerfuffle comes on the heels of Roth MKM analyst Edward Engel dropping a note wondering if PENN might sell off the Barstool brand, and that Portnoy leaving the company could be a boon to shareholders.
“Barstool’s founder has nonchalantly discussed leaving Barstool in ‘like two years,’ and Portnoy’s departure would increase the pool of partners/buyers,” Engel wrote.
