The disagreement arose when the social media personality took part in Red Dog Saloon’s competition that offers a top prize of £5,000 to anyone who can eat the most burgers in 10 minutes. The previous target to beat was 12 burgers, set on 21 June, which Jj Da Lion beat by eating a total of 14 burgers.
Entry to the competition is £50, with a black card membership offering a 20% discount for life given to people who can eat five burgers within the time frame and £1,000 for anyone who can eat 10 burgers.
The barbecue restaurant initially withheld paying out the £5,000 winning prize money to the social media personality, who participates in competitive eating competitions, claiming that he wasn’t eligible to compete without an invitation and therefore wasn’t able to win the top prize.
In its rules online it states that anyone with a competitive eating background or experience must pre-book their challenge. Red Dog Saloon says this was not done in this instance.
The group instead paid out £3,500, which it described as being ‘more than fair enough’.
In a post on his social media account, Jj Da Lion claims that Red Dog Saloon subsequently amended the terms and conditions and that there was no requirement to pre book. He also says the restaurant was informed of his competitive eating background before he took on the challenge.
He posted: ‘BTW since doing the challenge they’ve amended the terms and conditions to suit their case...Even though there was no requirement we still told them exactly what we do (as we do everywhere we go) and gave them all socials. They were aware and still took my £50 for me to attempt.’
In a subsequent post of Instagram the barbecue restaurant brand said that Jj Da Lion had now been paid an additional £1,500, taking his winnings to £5,000, after receiving ‘physical death threats’ against its staff. The post goes on to say that it is ‘no way suggesting JJ had anything to do with the malicious threats’.
The post says: ‘The dispute with Jj Da Lion has now been settled and he has received an additional £1.5k taking his total earnings to £5k. Whilst we do and always have respected his point of view we felt the original agreement of £3.5k was fair. However after receiving physical threats against our staff we paid an additional £1.5k as we have and always will put the safety of our customers and staff first.’
It went on to say: ‘Having gone through all the evidence thoroughly we have concluded that although JJ’s effort was undoubtedly very impressive his attempt broke our terms and conditions and therefore does not stand.’
According to Red Dog Saloon’s Instagram post, the current record for the burger eating challenge still stands at 12. However, on its website is says the challenge is to now eat more than 14 burgers, a record set on 9 July, the date which Jj Da Lion is understood to have taken on the challenge.