HBO Threatens Jake Paul's Gambling App Betr Over 'Entourage' Reunion Ad

HBO has threatened legal action against Jake Paul’s gambling app Betr over a three-minute commercial reuniting Entourage stars Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier.

The spot follows Piven through a celebrity-filled mansion party to a yacht, where he pitches Grenier a movie. Although neither actor uses his Entourage character’s name, HBO alleges that the setting, clothing, dialogue and delivery are “evocative, if not duplicative” of the series.

Betr has refused to remove the ad, arguing that it contains no Entourage footage, music, character names or dialogue.

“Copyright law does not lock up a ‘vibe,’ a party setting, or fast talk,” said sports and entertainment attorney Darren Heitner, who is not involved in the dispute.

“The fight turns on whether the spot copied protectable expression from Entourage or merely hired Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier and let the audience make associations on their own,” he explained.

Heitner believes HBO’s stronger potential argument would involve viewers mistakenly believing the network endorsed the campaign.

“Implied association is the sharper risk than copyright infringement, because false endorsement and trademark claims live or die on whether viewers reasonably think HBO sponsored or approved the commercial,” he said.

“Actors own their names and likenesses while studios own the characters and scripts,” Heitner added. “Hiring the former does not automatically buy the latter, and I would side with Betr in this circumstance.”

Kevin Kahn, founder of Kahn Media Law, notes that HBO is alleging not just that the ad evokes Entourage, but “that evoking the show was the entire point of the casting.”

“That’s no longer a persona/right-of-publicity argument — that’s a character-copyright argument, and it’s a real one,” Kahn explained. “Courts have separately held that a sufficiently developed character can be its own protected work, independent of any single episode.”

Kahn pointed to a 1995 case in which MGM successfully challenged a Honda commercial constructed to evoke James Bond, despite not using the character’s name. He also noted that HBO previously defeated similar infringement allegations involving Ballers.

“The moment your creative brief is ‘make it feel like Entourage,’ you’ve told a jury exactly what you were trying to do,” Kahn said.

“Nostalgia and star power are the cheapest way to buy instant recognition and borrowed trust,” Kahn said, adding that the benefit is particularly valuable in heavily regulated sports-betting advertising.

If HBO sues, he said, “disgorgement of the advertiser’s profits from the campaign — not just talent fees — is typically the real number on the table.”