"Papaya Gaming, the company behind Solitaire Cash, clearly has enough money to buy the last remaining scraps of Smith's dignity as well as rounding up several of his ESPN colleagues. On Wednesday, Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, Laura Rutledge, and Kendrick Perkins all used their Twitter accounts to post ads for the app, upon which people can lose money playing solitaire."
"That ESPN personalities would be tied up in something like this is not altogether surprising. Big-time sports media is saturated with gambling partnerships; virtually every media company and most individual personalities are taking money from someone. The Worldwide Leader's partnership with Penn Entertainment was a hilarious flop, though that hasn't slowed ESPN's eager rush to continue degrading its product with more and more gambling sludge."
ESPN centered its NBA Finals broadcasts on Stephen A. Smith, who showed visible disinterest and even used a solitaire app during games. Smith appeared in an AI ad for Solitaire Cash, a paid mobile app run by Papaya Gaming that allows users to lose money playing solitaire. Papaya recruited multiple ESPN personalities to post ads and is promoting a Miami "world championships" with about $300,000 in prizes and 400 flown competitors. Big-time sports media is saturated with gambling partnerships; ESPN's previous Penn Entertainment deal flopped but the network continues licensing gambling content and directing audiences toward new partners like DraftKings.
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