LeBron James sent a cease and desist letter to an AI-powered sports betting app that evokes his name and uses his likeness without authorization, a spokesperson for the NBA star tells Front Office Sports.

Bron AI bills itself as a tool that aggregates data and odds from traditional sportsbooks and prediction markets, allowing users to identify potentially profitable wagers and automatically place bets on other apps.

Its promotional video, posted to X/Twitter Wednesday, features a character who resembles James and is wearing a basketball jersey with his nickname, “Bron,” and his number, 23. The character, whose voice also resembles how James sounds, flips through the app before stopping on a photo of Suns forward Dillon Brooks. “Dillon Brooks? On Kalshi? Hell nah.” the character says.

The post, made by the company’s CEO, quickly garnered attention, racking up more than 900,000 views in less than 24 hours. 

“LeBron is in no way affiliated with this unauthorized use of his likeness,” a spokesperson for James tells FOS.

James’s camp acted fast, sending a cease and desist letter that rails against the “unauthorized use and illicit exploitation of” the 76ers star’s “name, nickname, likeness, image, persona, and other identifying attributes, materials and related information” to create the appearance of an association between the two sides.

The unauthorized use is “especially serious and egregious” because James has an exclusive endorsement deal with Polymarket, and because the ad implies he is “involved with betting on basketball, which is a very serious violation of NBA rules and regulations,” according to the letter.

The letter, from law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks PC, demands that Bron AI permanently stop using James’s likeness “in any manner and media,” including removing the ad. (The full ad also appears on Bron AI’s Instagram account.) It also says the company must notify every person who has used the app, in writing, that James has no involvement with the company.

James “intends to take any and all steps to enforce his rights as appropriate,” the letter says.

In addition to James and Brooks, the ad includes images of NBA players Donovan Mitchell and Giannis Antetokounmpo and NFL players Christian McCaffrey and Jayden Daniels. A photo of Lakers star Luka Dončić also appears in the ad. A representative for Dončić tells FOS he has also sent a cease and desist to Bron AI.

‘These Gimmicks Never Work’

Adam Mendelsohn, James’s longtime media advisor, tells FOS the Bron AI ad is “another example of the decline and lack of originality in sports marketing,” with “people all playing for the cheapest way to get clicks and aggregation.”

“I’m sure the intent here was for us to send a cease and desist in order to make it a story,” he says. “You would prefer not to respond but you don’t have a choice in a situation like this. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. For what it’s worth, these gimmicks never work because people see through it.”

Bron AI is owned by a company called PlayVision Inc., which was founded in 2025 and is backed by venture-capital firm Y Combinator. The app is free to download, but the “pro” version costs either $249.99 for an annual subscription or $29.99 for a monthly subscription. Bron AI and PlayVision did not respond to requests for comment.

Y Combinator has previously backed companies including Kalshi, Coinbase, and DoorDash. Jesse Silvertown, whose firm Hesperus advises on integrity diligence for sports and in the private markets, tells FOS he’s “floored” by the idea that the Bron AI ad made it through due diligence.

“The goal of diligence is risk identification and mitigation, so I’d be absolutely floored if no one asked questions about the name of the company and its NIL usage pre-transaction,” he says.

A representative for Y Combinator did not respond to a request for comment.

Darren Heitner, a prominent college sports attorney who also handles trademark filings and disputes for professional athletes and sports agencies, says the ad is “shocking.”

“It appears the commercial is a clear effort to trade on LeBron James’s identity,” Heitner tells FOS. “The combination of the nickname ‘Bron,’ the number 23, and the physical presentation, as well as the similarity in voice, seems designed to evoke him and capitalize on his stature in connection with an unrelated sports betting product.” 

“That is the type of unauthorized commercial use the right of publicity is intended to address,” Heitner says. 

James is not the only athlete who has recently had their likeness used without permission to promote an app tied to the sports betting world. In May, an attorney for Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander sent a cease and desist to sports prediction market and fantasy-sports company  Underdog after the company made a promotional item based on the classic board game Operation that was meant to tease the back-to-back NBA MVP over his reputation for foul baiting. Underdog refused to adhere to the demand.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time James has been compelled to send a cease and desist over something AI-related. In July 2025, he demanded that the creators of a tool called Interlink AI stop allowing videos using his likeness after users created videos with a pregnant version of James.