Here, in 2025, love it or hate it, Barstool Sports is one of the biggest names in sports media. Their content is often controversial and polarizing, much like the company’s outspoken owner and founder, Dave Portnoy — often to the benefit of their bottom line.
Advertisement
The blog and digital media company was founded by Portnoy back in 2003 in his native Massachusetts. A few years ago, Penn Entertainment bought Barstool in installments totaling $551 million. However, they quickly divested their interest in the company and sold it back to Portnoy. He believes both he and the brand would struggle to thrive in such a regulated environment.
Hearing Portnoy talk about the inception of the company makes its eventual sale for over half a billion dollars just two decades later that much more impressive.
The self-proclaimed ‘El Presidente’ discussed how he started Barstool all those years ago in a recent interview with Shannon Sharpe for the Club Shay Shay podcast. Portnoy revealed just how little he had to invest to get it up and running. He also
“Not much, maybe 30 grand, max. That’s for I had to buy the racks, that was the only expense really [to start the project], the racks to put the newspapers in,” Portnoy said before revealing how he came up with the name of the company, which, too, was a spur-of-the-moment decision born out of practicality.
“Barstool Sports was supposed to mean… anything that a guy would talk about sitting at a bar watching sports. That’s what it was supposed to mean. And I went through like 10 names, and that was the one that was available.”
Portnoy went on to say that while his parents did help with that initial investment back in 2003, the company didn’t take in any more outside money until 2016. He also didn’t really make any money until 2010. That’s when he decided to sponsor a local rapper named Sam Adams and take him, and Barstool, on a 10-concert tour at 10 local colleges, including URI and UMass.
It was the first time Portnoy had tried his shtick outside the metropolitan Boston area, just to see if anyone knew of him or his company. That tour is what made Portnoy realize what he really had with Barstool.
He had originally planned to do the UMass show at a frat basement. But the Mullins Center, the university’s sports arena, which has a capacity of about 10,000, received so many calls that they convinced him to move the show there.
“They’re like, ‘Would you ever think of doing it in the arena?’ I was like, ‘I can’t afford that, we won’t do it.’ And they said, ‘Well, what if we set it up in a way with very little risk?’ I said, ‘If you’re willing to do it, fine.'” Portnoy recalled.
“We sold out in five minutes, like sold the arena out. That’s when it kind of clicked that, it’s like, there may be something going on here that I’m not totally aware. Showed up to these campuses, signs on the roof. It was crazy.”
Portnoy said that tour is what made him realize that he really had a “legit company” on his hands. And, it was just a couple of years after that fateful UMass concert, in 2012 or 2013, when he started making seven figures from the business.
Portnoy and Barstool continue to be vocal in the sports and pop culture industries, especially when it comes to Boston-related tabloids. Most recently, Portnoy and Barstool Sports have announced a partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Also in 2024, they signed a pact with online video streaming company Rumble. The platform is known for its popularity among alt-right and conservative users.
