Two weeks ago, 46-year-old Dave Portnoy called one of his trademark “emergency press conferences” to say he had bought Barstool Sports back from Penn Entertainment for a whopping $1, with some provisions. He promised he would never sell it again.
Penn acquired Barstool for $551 million earlier this year. They said they would be launching a sports book with ESPN instead of Barstool. As it turns out, Barstool was never fit for that kind of industry instead. It has a large following known as “Stoolies” for its podcasts, YouTube series, and social media accounts that cover sports, sex, comedy, and celebrity with a sort of casual, almost flippant perspective.
Barstool as a brand has always been ripe with controversy. It has some not-so-great stories of being a terrible place to work under Portnoy. Personality Ben Mintz accidentally said the N-word on a stream while he was reading rap lyrics and got himself fired. Portnoy, “El Presidente,” has been accused of sexual harassment and has a history of racist language himself.
Portnoy has every right to be happy he “has his voice back” with his recent purchase. He is a famous online everyman in his own right worth millions; Barstool celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. He notably put together the Barstool Fund which raised millions to help struggling small businesses during COVID. He’s one of the most interesting figures online, for sure.
But he’s still the same polarizing David Portnoy.
