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People who have a high-profile job at ESPN tend to earn a salary that allows them to live a very comfortable life. However, some of the network’s biggest names have decided to supplement it with the bag they’ve secured by promoting a solitaire app that’s landed their endorsement after joining forces with Stephen A. Smith.
There isn’t a single front-facing personality currently employed by ESPN who rakes in more dough from the network than Stephen A. Smith, who is the beneficiary of a five-year contract that pays him $21 million a year (which is a little more than half of what he earns on an annual basis thanks to his other ventures).
The boisterous host might make more money than most professional athletes, but as is the case with most people in that realm, he’s more than happy to supplement his income with the various endorsement deals that come with being one of the most influential talking heads in the country.
Smith garnered plenty of attention during the NBA Finals in June when he was caught playing solitaire on his phone instead of paying attention to what was going on during the third quarter of Game 4 between the Pacers and the Thunder, and he was recently able to leverage that snafu into a partnership with an app called Solitaire Cash.
You can’t beat my score. Nobody can.
Download Solitaire Cash. Enter the “Beat Stephen” Tournament.Win? Post your screenshot in the comments.
You will get a prize. ♠️No distractions. Pure focus.
That’s how champs win.— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 5, 2025
However, he’s not the only person at ESPN who’s gotten in on the action.
Multiple ESPN personalities are being criticized for promoting a solitaire app in conjunction with Stephen A. Smith
At this point, Smith has made it pretty clear he could not care less about what other people think about him, and it’s not necessarily surprising to see him shamelessly cash in after being offered what was presumably a lucrative deal to promote the app in question.
It would be one thing if he were the only person at ESPN promoting it, but that is not the case, as his post spearheaded a coordinated push that saw Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, Laura Rutlidge, and Kendrick Perkins all get in on the action on Wednesday.
All of them have been firmly ratioed over that fairly cringe-inducing push, and what was already a rough look gets even worse when you realize the company behind the app is being sued after being accused of using bots to scam users out of money.
It is safe to assume every ESPN employee who has promoted it has language in their contract that allows them to earn extra income via endorsement deals like these, but at some point, you have to wonder if it’s really worth it.