BetMGM Wants A Piece Of Jerry Lawler Over 'King of Sportsbooks' Tweets

The Tennessee sports gambling scene has its first known battle royale. BetMGM is going after Nashville-based book Action 24/7 because 24/7 partner Jerry "The King" Lawler tweeted images of himself with the tagline "The Real King of Sportsbooks," according to the Tennessean.

It turns out BetMGM has a trademark on "The King of Sportsbooks" and sent Action 24/7 a cease and desist letter on November 24 after Lawler busted out three of his own "King of Sportsbooks" tweets on November 23. That's right, the sportsbook wars of 2020 have reached this level.

Action 24/7, not backing down in this cage match, says it wasn't their doing. "It was a post, a tweet, from Jerry 'The King' Lawler in response to (BetMGM) claiming to be the king and putting Jamie Foxx on a billboard. When in Tennessee, when people think of the king and sports, they think of Jerry Lawler," Action 24/7 president Tina Hodges told the Tennessean.

BetMGM said in its cease-and-desist letter that “any use of the BetMGM Mark or a confusingly similar variation that misleads the public by creating a false association and/or suggests an affiliation or endorsement between BetMGM and Action 24/7 violates BetMGM’s federal and state trademark rights.”

Does BetMGM know who they're messing with here? Lawler once fought Rick Rude in a parking lot. You think "The King" is scared of some BetMGM nerd lawyer coming after him for three tweets? Jerry's 71 and has been married three times. No way he's afraid of a court fight. Sports betting has been legalized in Tennessee for, like, two weeks, and we already have a parking lot brawl.












 










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Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.