Three days after several top ESPN personalities publicly endorsed a shady real-money gaming app currently embroiled in a fraud lawsuit, at least one has publicly apologized for her involvement.
On Saturday evening, ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes took to social media to express regret for advertising an app called Solitaire Cash, which is owned by a company, Papaya Gaming, that was recently found to have defrauded customers in what are called real-money games of skill. A court recently ruled that Papaya Gaming placed bots into games that were purportedly played by only human users, and those bots could determine whether human users won or lost.
“The truth is: I didn’t spend any time looking into the whole thing, and that’s 100% on me. Thought it was just typical marketing work, and I’m deeply embarrassed I didn’t vet it. A colossal f*ck-up on my part,” Kimes wrote to her followers on X. The NFL Live regular has deleted her original social media post endorsing the app.
Later on Saturday evening, Kimes posted to Bluesky, “Haven’t been paid a dime (we’ll see what happens now!!) but [if] I do I’m certainly giving it away.”
Kimes does not seem to be the only ESPN talent opting to distance themselves from Papaya Gaming’s sketchy business practices. Her NFL Live colleague Laura Rutledge and Dan Orlovsky have also deleted social media posts endorsing the app.
As of now, Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins still have advertisements endorsing Solitaire Cash on their social media feeds.
The origins of this fiasco date back to this year’s NBA Finals, when Stephen A. Smith was found to be playing solitaire on his phone while on-duty for ESPN’s studio coverage. Last week, Smith became a spokesperson of sorts for Solitaire Cash as the app announced the first-ever World Solitaire Championship. As if the optics of Smith cashing in on a moment that most sports media professionals would’ve found embarrassing weren’t enough negative press for ESPN, several of his colleagues at the Worldwide Leader decided to cash in as well.
ESPN has been reached for comment.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.