It certainly seems there is trouble in paradise at Barstool Sports.
One day after Barstool’s parent company, gambling conglomerate Penn National, demanded that the media company fire personality Ben Mintz after he uttered a racial slur while rapping along to song lyrics on a live stream, owner Dave Portnoy tweeted an image of Penn’s stock price, which had dramatically fallen since the news broke.
“There he is. That’s Mintzy,” Portnoy wrote on Twitter, along with a screengrab of the stock, which was down 10.26 percent at the time that he captured the image.
“By the way I’m crying on the inside,” Portnoy added in a second tweet. “I own a ton of $penn stock. Great time to buy. It’ll bounce back in my humble non financial advise opinion.”
Mintz, while on his “Wake Up Mintzy” show Monday morning, was rapping along to the lyrics of “1st Of Tha Month” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony when he let the N-word slip out live on the broadcast.
“This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric,” Mintz tweeted Monday morning.
“I meant no harm & have never felt worse about anything. I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself.”
Portnoy said on a video he posted to social media that Mintz was also highly apologetic behind closed doors and that there was no “malice” intended, but that Penn still required Barstool to fire the personality over fears that state regulators would revoke their gambling licenses.
Portnoy also feared that the move would be a “death blow” for Barstool and that die-hard fans would not react positively to the news.
So far, the early returns have not been positive, with the stock price falling even further after Portnoy’s tweet.
As of noon Thursday, the stock was down to $26.28 per share, down from $30 per share at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Penn bought a minority share of Barstool in 2020, then the rest of the company earlier this year, for a combined total of $551 million.
Together they launched Barstool Sportsbook, which operates in 16 states, including New Jersey.
The company, however, feared that due to the highly regulated nature of the gambling industry – as well as public anti-Barstool sentiment – regulators would jump at the opportunity to pull their betting licenses in some of the states.
“Penn is a billion-dollar company, multi-billion dollar company. Without their licenses, they are a zero-dollar company,” Portnoy said.
“I hate the decision. I don’t agree with the decision. But it’s not my decision to make.”
In response to being called a “sellout” on social media for acquiescing to Penn, Portnoy posted a second video, where he said: “No doy.”
Warning: graphic language
“You’re just figuring that out? I started a company and I f–king sold it the f–k out. Made hundreds of millions, made millions for everybody that grinded,” he said.
“… Yeah we sold the f–k out because that’s what you do when you’re an entrepreneur. You start this little company you dream one day and you sell it the f–k out.”
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