DAVE PORTNOY: The Story Behind The Founding Of Barstool Sports (2024)

With a net worth of $120 million as of 2023, Dave Portnoyfamously known asEl Presidentis a widely known sports media American Celebrity.Barstool founder Davehas a huge following on his Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts and I bet you have heard about him. His love for betting and gambling highly contributed to the founding of Barstool Sports, the most engaging blog that covers the latest news and highlights related to sports and pop culture.

Dave Portnoy, 46, also has a pizza review Youtube channel where he loves to review pizza from as many restaurants as he can. For his show, One Bite Pizza onYoutube,you get to see Dave eat one pizza per day, which he has done for over two years. Before all this, Dave was drowning in debts; $59,000 to credit card companies, $18,000 to his dad, and $30,000 lost in gambling. That’s according to court documents and he filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

Dave Portnoy’slove for sports began at a very young age. He used to play both football and baseball in Swampscott High School where he studied. In college, he didn’t play much despite joining the world’s greatest college known for sports, The University of Michigan. He graduated with a degree in Education and worked at Yankee Group for about 4 years before founding his company, Barstool Sports. Portnoy launched Barstool in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts.

Having realized a gap in the market related to sports betting, Dave Portnoy was determined to fill that gap. The internet, in 2003, was not as it is now and so he began by producing a local Boston Newspaper that featured sports bets. His childhood friends would help him write articles for the newspaper under pseudo accounts, making them seem like they had multiple writers. They would spend over 10 hours a day writing content for the local paper.

By the year 2007, the local paper had experienced immense growth and therefore Dave Portnoy decided to move into the online space. This was a wise decision as they even gained higher traffic from all over the world. Up to date, Barstool receives up to 1,000,000 visitors a month on their website with their best performing year being 2016 where Forbes reported that the company had an average of 8 million unique visitors in a month.

As of the year 2020, Barstool Sports ranked 1072 in the US Rank and 5582 in the global Alexa Rank, which is great. Despite the competition from other betting sites, Dave attributes the success of Barstool Sports to the concept of “Doing what you love”. He says that if you do what you love then you will be able to wake up every day motivated and energized to chase your vision, that is what keeps him and the company at large going.

A Business Insiderarticlepublished in November 2021 showed that Dave Portnoy had violent and humiliating sex with females as young as 19. A year later, Dave Portnoy announced his plans to sue them for clickbait defamation. Business Insider again published a follow-up article on February 2, 2022, with more allegations against the Barstool founder. It stated that Dave filmed various women during sex without their approval.

Portnoy again denied the allegations. He posted a brief Twitter message accusing Business Insider of a “Hit Piece.” A week after the article was published, he filed a suit against Business Insider for “defamation and invasion of privacy.” He called the article “ridiculous.”

In November 2022, a federal judgetossed outDave Portnoy’s case, saying he didn’t have enough proof that the Business Insider article defamed him. Dave later filed for an appeal, but in February 2023, hewithdrewhis lawsuit.

Over the years,Barstool Sportshas believed that CSR isn’t a particular program, it is what they do every day, maximizing positive impact and minimizing negative impact.

Barstool Sports raised $240,000 for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings attack and $150,000 to the family of the police officer from Massachusetts who was killed on duty.

In 2017, Big Cat through his podcast, Pardon My Take, raised $50,000 for the Justin J Watt Foundation.

In 2018, Barstool Sports partnered with Baker Mayfield, an NFL quarterback to release a clothesline whose proceeds would benefit the Special Olympics in Ohio.

In 2018, Barstool Sports Founder, Dave Portnoy donated $20,000 towards pediatric cancer research and treatment through the Penn state annual IFC Dance Marathon.

In 2019, Dave Portnoy led a fundraising campaign towards mental health and specifically, PTSD, which ended up raising $91,000.

Lately, in 2020, Barstool Sports launched a non-profitfundraising fund which up to date has raised $41 millionwhile engaging over 200,000 people in the contributions including celebrities such as Tom Brady, Elon Musk, Kid Rock, and Aaron Rodgers.

The Barstool Fund has a mission of raising money for owners of 443 small businesses (including restaurants) in the US who have been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Barstool podcasts have ranked highly because of the large audience and massive social media following. Podcasts such as Pardon My Take, Call Her Daddy, The Kirk Minihane Show and many more have topped the podcasts charts for years.

Renowned athletes, comedians, and bloggers such as Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Whitney, Willie Colon, James Duke, Will Compton, and many more guys also have a podcast that features on the Barstool Sports Websites.

Barstool Sports also showcases on its site the Rough and Rowdy show which is an amateur boxing league in West Virginia through pay-per-view events.

Barstool’s Dave Portnoy faced controversy when he was accused of misogyny and toxicity as one of the podcasts promoted sexual harassment, However, he brushed off the backlash he received when he said his site was only a comedy site and should not be put in the same standard with a news site.

Barstool president entertained his followers with videos claiming he was dying and had no more shirts to interchange. This comes after his team was eliminated from the 2023 NBA playoffs in a Game 7 blowout. In the video, the controversial personality began with Celtics in 4 shirt before disclosing a new shirt under it following Boston’s first loss.

Revealing new Celtics in X shirts has been his trend after every first three defeats of his team and when they tied the series. So, Celtics didn’t just lose, they were also blown out of the building, and their president Dave Portnoy was out of sight.

In September 2020, Barstool Sports thanks to Penn National Gaming launched a sportsbook which is a mobile application for betting was only available at the moment to residents of Pennsylvania.

What states is Barstool Sportsbook Legal in? As of now, Barstool Sportsbook has all relevant license and authorization from gambling authorities. The Sportsbook is now available in Arizona, Iowa, West Virginia, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, Kansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Tennessee.

Is Barstool Sportsbook trustworthy? Yes, Barstool Sportsbook is a trustworthy betting platform with a safe and simple banking mechanism to use. How long does Barstool Sportsbook take to verify? The site uses e-verification process that takes around 10-minutes without the need of uploading documents.

Barstool Sportsbook allow deposits through e-wallets, bank transfers, and credit cards with a minimum deposit of $10. Just like any other sportsbook platform, Barstool allow early cash out for some selected markets.

Barstool Radio 85, which was a subsidiary of Barstool Sports, was a channel on Sirius XM. It had operated for 4 years from January 2017 to January 2021, but the new contract terms could not be reached.

Barstool Sports has however launched a new segment on the radio calledBarstool Sports: Picks Centralwhich has been operational from February 2021 in which sports betting is discussed in depth.

Barstool Sports is also airing games online. You can download Barstool Sports app on Android, iPhone, Roku, etc or stream live Amazon FireStick.

1. Who is the CEO of Barstool Sports?

Erika Nardini, who was the former Chief Marketing Officer ofAOLis the CEO of Barstool Sports. She has been the CEO since July 2016.

Barstool Founder, Dave Portnoy is no longer the CEO of the company but is the Chief of Content as he manages the podcasts and blogs posted on the site.

2. How much did Dave Portnoy sell Barstool Sports for?

In 2016, Barstools Sports decided to seek outside investments and sold a 51% stake to The Chernin Group(TCG) which is a private equity investments firm based in California, America that invests in companies that define cultures such as Barstool, Tumblr, and Pandora. Barstool sold the stake to TCG at around 10-15 million dollars and immediately moved its headquarters to New York City.

In 2020, Barstool Sports sold a 36% stake to Penn National Gaming which operates over 40 casinos and racetracks in the US and Canada under the Hollywood Casino Brand. Barstool sold the stake to Penn National Gaming at $163,000,000 in both cash and stock.

3. What percentage of Barstool Sports does Dave Portnoy own?

Dave Portnoy and other few executives own 13% of the company as that is what remained after selling 51% to The Chernin Group and 36% to Penn National Gaming.

4. Why did Ellie Schnitt leave Barstool Sports?

Ellie Schnitt had a podcast known as The Schnitt Talk which was programmed on the Barstool Sports Website. She hosted it together with Alanna Vizzoni until September 2020 where it was canceled due to her departure.

There are many controversies regarding her departure, but according to Ellie, she left to look for greener pastures careerwise.

Her co-host however did not leave Barstool but has been working on several projects with the company.

5. Does Big Cat own part of Barstool Sports?

Dan Katz who is famously called Big Cat was among the very first content creators of Barstool Sports. He has seen both the highs and lows of the company.

During the 51% sale of stake to The Chernin Group, Big Cat launched his podcast “Pardon My Take” which has grown tremendously and has ranked among the most downloaded sports podcast in the US.

Around the same time, many controversies regarding rape comments, copyright issues, and nude photos built up about Barstool Sports causing a show which the Big Cat was to host on ESPN known as ‘Barstool Van Talk’ to be canceled.

With a net worth of about $2 million, Big Cat remains to be one of the most remarkable voices in the world of sports media but still does not own a single part of Barstool Sports. The company has however opened great doors for him hence his net worth of about $2 million.

6. How many employees do Barstool Sports have?

Barstool Sports is a private company based in New York. It has 641 employees. According toZippia,which is a company that analyzes companies and their human resources, on average, employees at Barstool Sports work for the company for approximately 1.1 years.

Barstool Sports loves to hire graduates from the University of Kentucky as about 13.3% of its employees are graduates of the institution.Three Barstool employees and Dave Portnoy even landed in a controversy after handcuffing themselves on NFL headquarters protesting Deflategate.

Did you know that Mike Kerns who is the president of The CherninGroup Digital met Barstool Sports Founder, Dave Portnoy, through a friend who was a former University of Kentucky quarterback, Jared Lorenzen? Could we say that is where the love for the graduates of the university began?

7. How much money do Barstool Sports employees make?

Here is an approximate figure of salaries of employees at Barstool Sports according to Chad Wyrink ofAgainst The Points:

• Producer- $59,480/yr

• Marketing manager- $51,887/yr

• Business operations- $75,583/yr

• Admin-$78,787/yr

• Sales manager-$77,522/yr

• Social media manager-$14/hr

• Associate marketing manager- $55,377/yr

• Intern-$435/mo

The exact amount of salaries of Barstool Sports employees is not known. However, for a company that makes millions of dollars in revenue, then you know that their employees are paid well.

Clickhereto check out Barstool Sports Website and be up to date on matters related to sports and pop culture.

Despite being apolitical, one of the major highlights of Dave Portnoy’s career as thefounder of Barstool Sports is when he got to interviewDonald Trump, the former president of the United States of America. Dave interviewed Donald Trump on July 23, 2020. Trump confessed that his son was a huge lover of sports and follows news keenly from Barstool Sports and was interested to know the person behind it.

A lot was discussed and to watch the full interview on Youtube, clickhere.

1. What is Dave Portnoy’s height?

Dave Portnoy is 6 feet 2 inches tall which is approximately 188 cm.

2. Does Dave Portnoy still trade?

Yes, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy still trades. However, he has been expanding his horizons beyond sports gambling and the barstool brand and into day trading as of 2021. It has not been easy for him as he has lost over $740,000 but the Barstool brand owner encourages everyone to only trade what they are willing to lose. Portnoy’s account for trading has equally earned profits.

3. Is Dave Portnoy married?

No, Dave Portnoy is a divorcee. He had a wife from 2009-2017, Renee Satterthwaite who is a businesswoman.They had no kids together.

Dave Portnoy is however rumored to have a young girlfriend Silvana Mojica who is in her late 20’s. They even have matching tattoos.

4. What happened between Dave Portnoy and Michael Rapaport?

Michael Rapaport filed a case against Barstool Sports for defamation and breach of contract. Michael was an employee at Barstool Sports for close to a year before being fired by Dave Portnoy hence the wrangles between them.

5. What is David Portnoy net worth?

As of 2023, Davit Portnoy net worth is estimated at $100 million by Celebrity Networth.

6. How much did Portnoy sell Barstool for?

Barstool Sports was sold to Penn Entertainment in a $388 million deal.

7. Why did Jeff Nadu leave Barstool?

Jeff Nadu left Barstool Sports because of a contract dispute. Nadu asked for 100% raise and his boss David Portnoy was not ready for it.

8. How old is Barstool President?

Barstool president, David Portnoy is 46 years old. He was born March 22, 1977.

Twitter-Clickhereto check out Dave Portnoy’s Twitter account

Instagram-Clickhereto follow Dave Portnoy on Instagram.

• “We’re a comedy site and have made fun of every single race, religion, creed, and gender. We’ve made fun of it equally.”

• “I feel like I see more and more Neapolitan style, that I call ‘fancy pizza’ – that’s not my cup of tea; I think it all tastes the same.”

• “There is always a line that can’t be crossed. Anything that is said or written from a place of hate will never be acceptable behavior at Barstool.”

• “The people at Barstool Sports are a bunch of average Joes, who like most guys love sports, gambling, golfing and chasing short skirts.”

• “If you’re ordering chain, you’re a person with poor taste. Everyone lives near a pizza place that’s better than a chain. They can’t stand up to a local pizzeria.”