Dave Portnoy is once more the owner of Barstool Sports, the corporate he founded 20 years ago.
On August 8, Penn National entered right into a 10-year, $2 billion sports betting take care of Disney-owned ESPN to launch its branded sportsbook, ESPN BET, within the US. As a result, Penn is forced to divest Barstool Sports.
History: In January 2020, Penn Entertainment, then often called Penn National Gaming, paid $163 million for a 36% stake in Barstool, and Chernin Group walked away with the identical percentage of ownership. In February of this yr, Penn accomplished its previously announced acquisition of Barstool, paying $388 million for the 64% of Barstool it didn’t already own.
Barstool Sports and its founder Dave Portnoy are lightning rods within the sports and entertainment industry, each hated and loved for his or her embrace of unfiltered, uncensored podcasts and articles. The brand has an enormous following, but their penchant for controversy has probably outgrown Penn and Disney.
To go: Portnoy now owns 100% of the corporate he founded for the primary time in 10 years. The divestment is subject to certain non-competition clauses.
Andrew Pompliano put it quite succinctly:
You can love or hate @stoolpresidentehowever the man sold his company for ~$500 million after which got 100% of its value back for $0.
Probably one in all the most important business deals of the previous few many years.
Wild.
— Pompa 🌪 (@APompliano) August 8, 2023
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