Portnoy’s back and he’s got some complaints.
Two weeks ago, Dave Portnoy, 46 called one of his “emergency press conferences” to announce that he had bought Barstool Sports back from Penn Entertainment for $1, with various provisions.
He promised to never sell it again.
And Penn, who fully acquired Barstool for $551 million earlier this year, would be launching a sports book with ESPN.
Turned out, as he explained, Barstool Sports, a media and entertainment company that thrives on being unmuzzled, wasn’t the best fit for a regulated industry like sports gambling.
Barstool has a devoted following known as “Stoolies” for its scores of podcasts, YouTube and social media series that cover everything from comedy, sports, and sex, to food and celebrity — all done with an unpolished, irreverent touch.
They sell merchandise and produce live events like the upcoming “One Bite” pizza festival, golf tournaments and Rough and Rowdy, where amateur boxers try to knock each other out in front of raucous crowds.
And sitting atop this circus tent, is Portnoy, known to Stoolies as “El Presidente.”
It couldn’t have been comfortable for Penn the last few months as Barstool-related headlines rocked its stock price. Most recently, Barstool personality Ben Mintz accidentally dropped the N-word on a livestream while reading rap lyrics and was fired.
“I didn’t see it in real time,” Portnoy told The Post of Penn’s decision to divest from Barstool. “Once it played out, I was shocked. Happy but shocked,” he said.
He said Penn always had their back, even when the gambling company was subjected to what he called unfair standards from state regulators, like a Massachusetts Gaming Commission probe that reportedly stemmed from a New York Times report painting him as a degenerate gambler.
He has also claimed Penn were denied licenses because of him, saying of what he felt was the company’s treatment by regulators that it was “painful on a human level. You just couldn’t win with them.”
But Portnoy, to use Kamala Harris’ favorite buzzword, is now “unburdened.”
In his emergency press conference, he announced “it’s back to the pirate ship” — a warning salvo to employees and enemies alike.
“I don’t know if it was getting my baby back, it was getting my voice back,” he told The Post of buying back Barstool.
First he turned his megaphone on his employees, many of whom haven’t been in the office, and are now “on notice.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity at Barstool. There’s always been. For those who want to work for it, they will rise to the top. And those who are skating by, they’re gone,” he said.
There’s a long list of folks who would disagree that Portnoy, who essentially invented internet pugilism, has ever held his tongue. His list of foes run deep from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to MSG honcho Jim Dolan.
His future targets? State gambling regulators.
“[People] don’t know the things I haven’t talked about but will now,” he said. “Regulators. There are specific people by name that have done what I think is treacherous stuff that I haven’t mentioned. Barstool Sports book is still the name [on Penn’s gambling operations]. I will wait until that switches to ESPN and won’t cause problems for Penn at any level,” said Portnoy.
He pointed to one state gambling regulator, whom he describes as a “Barstool hater” and “brutally unfair.”
“But those people will have their day in court. My court. The court of Portnoy.”
The timing of this deal, though unexpected, could not have more been poignant. On August 27, the company will celebrate its 20th anniversary — an improbable run for a venture that launched as free gambling paper Portnoy personally handed out at Boston subway stations.
His brash, everyman perspective on women, sports and gambling managed to captivate the city’s thriving bro culture — at a moment when Boston’s pro sports teams were surging.
The scrappy company burst online into a multi-city blog and was acquired by Chernin Media in 2016, allowing Portnoy to hire CEO Erika Ayers Badan, (formerly Nardini), who grew the brand’s footprint online.
Fast forward to 2023, Portnoy is worth north of $100 million and last week bought a racehorse for $650,000.
His bank account swelled with his acid reflux: his desk in a cramped office at their Seventh Avenue headquarters is littered with Prilosec.
The result, he said, of copious consumption of pizza — an industry he, a Jewish guy from Massachusetts has come to dominate with his “one bite” pizza review videos.
Along with Ayers Badan and a rag tag group of employees (Dan “Big Cat” Katz, PFT and Kevin Clancy), Portnoy has built Barstool into a brand with more than 250 million followers across social media. “Pardon My Take” hosted by Katz and PFT is one of the top sports podcasts in the world.
But Portnoy remains a polarizing figure: as loved by his “everyman” audience as he is loathed in media circles. And like an old school wrestling heel, he thrives on both sentiments.
Most of this, will surely be reflected on when the company gathers next week in Boston for an awards show to fete their two decades.
“I don’t keep scrapbooks. My mom does so I am sure I will have something crazy from her. But I don’t know how much you want to keep because for me, the press is 60/40 bad.”
The good have been euphoric. “The sale to Penn [in 2020] because holy s–t, we made it. From then on, if it worked or didn’t financially,” the deal was “beyond my wildest dreams.”
There was also the Barstool Fund, a grassroots campaign that raised over $40 million to save small businesses during the pandemic.
“Even though I have a black heart, knowing that money and a lot of those places did exactly what they were supposed to do; they are surviving and thriving. That’s so great.”
The worst arrived in late 2021, when Insider published a pair of articles detailing “violent” and “painful” sexual encounters he had with several anonymous young women.
He emphatically denied the accusations and filed a defamation lawsuit. It was tossed by a federal judge.
“The headlines were brutal. And people still say it to me to this day. It was not only challenging, it was frightening. People can take my word for it, or they don’t have to. There’s zero truth to it, and I felt like I had to the evidence to clearly show that there’s zero proof to it,” he said calling himself, “honest to a fault.”
That honesty can extend from deeper matters to trivia, including who Tom Brady should date. When rumors circulated that the retired NFL great was seeing Kim Kardashian, Portnoy voiced his disapproval of such a pairing. Brady, said Portnoy, deserves a woman “above the fray” like Kate Beckinsale or Jennifer Aniston.
Does he get invited to Brady’s hypothetical wedding?
“I am sure I wouldn’t. I’ve met him a few times, and if I saw him, I’d say hello. But we’re not real friends.”
Not like New England Patriots’ owner Bob Kraft, who he considers a genuine pal. Last week, both men attended a secret Ed Sheeran concert, where Kraft bragged to Howard Stern of Portnoy’s deal to buy back Barstool, then quipped, “Us Boston guys gotta stick together.”
It’s been hailed as a great deal for Portnoy, but it comes with significant financial challenges.
“We were losing money. When I owned it myself, we always made money,” he said.
He bought Barstool back to “ensure the future. And I care about, I wish I didn’t, our idiots out there who would have no future, no lives, no nothing if they didn’t work here.”
It’s not all praise from Portnoy, as they begin this new chapter: it’s clear some heads could roll.
“I think I’m a pretty well-liked boss, even though I can be a jerk to people. I think people are invigorated. And I’m clearly invigorated.”
First order of business is to huddle with CEO Ayers Badan to shore up the numbers. “We get the business safe again. We gotta break even. That’s my goal,” he said adding, “I’m not a total humanitarian. The new era starts now.”
