Popular Barstool host Ben Mintz was fired from the company after saying a racial slur while reading rap lyrics on a livestream earlier this week.
Mintz, known as Mintzy, received backlash when he said the N-word on his show, ‘Wake Up Mintzy,’ while rapping the song ‘1st of Tha Month’ by Bone Thugz-N-Harmony on Monday.
Two days later, Barstool President Dave Portnoy posted a video to Twitter, announcing that the company had fired the host.
Portnoy added that Barstool’s parent company, Penn Entertainment, had forced him to fire Mintz, claiming the decision was not his. Dailymail.com has reached out to Penn for comment.
He claimed that the call was made, despite him, Barstool CEO Erika Nardini and longtime talent Dan Katz insisting that Mintz had made an honest mistake.
Portnoy added that the call to fire Mintz was made over concern that the incident could jeopardize regulatory gambling licenses across the country.
‘I hate the decision. I disagree with the decision. I would not have made the decision. But I don’t deal with the things Penn deals with in terms of state regulators etc,’ Portnoy told The New York Post.
‘Penn paid a lot of money for Barstool and they have to make the best decisions to protect their business. I trust and respect [Penn CEO] Jay [Snowden] that he makes what he thinks is the right move and that’s all you can ask for. Doesn’t mean I’ll always agree but again he deals with things I don’t have to think or deal with.’
In a video announcing the firing, Portnoy expressed shock and disbelief that Mintz’s ‘innocent mistake’ could have affected the company with regulators.
‘They believe there’s a legitimate chance lots of states could pull their licenses because of this,’ said Portnoy.
‘Penn’s a multi-billion dollar company. Without their licenses, they are a zero-dollar company. Investors, families, employees, thousands of people — they believe it’s their job to protect all of this and the only answer is to fire Ben Mintz.
