Barstool founder and president Dave Portnoy announced Tuesday evening that contributor Ben Mintz had been fired for reading the n-word in song lyrics on a recent Barstool live stream.
Portnoy, in a video posted on his Twitter feed, said that anyone that sees the video can tell instantly that Mintz was reading lyrics from his phone screen and instantly knew he messed up and that there was clearly no hateful intent. El Pres added that his hands were tied in the decision to terminate Mintz, known by his nickname “Mintzy.”
Portnoy said Penn had the final say in the decision to fire Mintz. Despite the fact that he, CEO Erika Ayers, and Dan “Big Cat” Katz fought Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden to keep Mintz employed, the company has a zero-tolerance policy on the use of racial slurs in any context.
“Penn felt differently,” Portnoy said. “I’m stunned by it, and I’ve been fighting tooth and nail, as has Erika, as has Dan, to keep Ben and say this is the wrong decision.”
“Bottom line is this – you can’t do stuff like this,” Portnoy added. “And really we haven’t had an incident like this since they’ve taken over.”
Earlier this year, Penn Entertainment bought the remaining ownership stake in Barstool from Portnoy for $388 million. The company acquired a 36% share back in 2020 for $163 million.
Portnoy explained that Penn’s perspective was that keeping Mintz was a liability and jeopardized its licenses to operate online sportsbooks in several states under the Barstool name.
“Penn operates in a world that we don’t operate in it,” Dave said. “They’re highly regulated by the government. They’re issued licenses for gambling that just as easily as it could be issued they can be pulled back.
“And they believe there is a legitimate chance lots of the states would pull their licenses because of this,” he added. “Penn’s a billion-dollar company – a multi-billion-dollar company. Without their licenses, they are a zero dollar company. Investors, families, employees, thousands of people, they feel it’s their job to protect all of this. And the only answer is to fire Ben Mintz.”
Portnoy said he told Snowden that firing Mintz posed a risk of alienating a very passionate and loyal Barstool fanbase, but Barstool Sports now comprises a small portion of the Penn Entertainment portfolio. He said of Snowden that he likes and respects him, but he just didn’t feel like termination was the appropriate action to take in this instance.
“I hate the decision. I don’t agree with the decision, but it’s not my decision to make,” Portnoy said. “And when we sold Barstool to Penn, we knew what came with it. We knew the guidelines. We knew you couldn’t do what Ben Mintz did. We knew it was a regulated industry, and we knew if someone went beyond the guardrails after they purchased us, these decisions on how to deal with it would be Penn decisions.”
Portnoy later tweeted that Penn is frightened of regulators who seem keen on looking for any reason to pull licenses in states.
Mintz’s Picks Central co-host Brandon Walker also voiced his displeasure with the decision to let Mintzy go.
Mintz posted a tweet later providing an update on how he’s doing.
