Dave Portnoy Biography

David Portnoy is an internet personality, author, and editor of Barstool Sports, a sports and pop culture site. In the 2000s, Portnoy founded Barstool Sports after seeing a gap in the demand for research to guide his sports betting. About the fact that it was the dawn of the internet, Portnoy chose to keep Barstool Sports a small Boston newspaper rather than the website it is today. Portnoy self-published the first issues and distributed them to commuters. Although Portnoy continued to distribute print issues until 2013, Barstool Sports went digital around 2008. Barstool's valuation increased as the website's audience expanded, particularly as Portnoy focused on developing personalities at Barstool. “We were still on time,” Portnoy remarked. “When I first began doing this, there was no pressure to write a novel. When time passed, it became a thriving market, and other bloggers began to publish stories similar to ours. On the internet, everybody could have a common perspective. But no one – and no one has the personalities that we have here – before now.” In 2020, the site made headlines when it agreed to sell a 36 percent interest in the company to Penn National Gaming Inc. for $163 million. The Chernin Group, a media corporation, holds 36% of Barstool Sports, with the majority held by Portnoy, Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini, and employees. In September 2020, the company released Barstool Sportsbook, a mobile sports betting service, in Pennsylvania. It took in $11 million in wagers in the first week of service. The app is only available to people who are geographically present in Pennsylvania; however, Penn National plans to extend its activities to other states. Via Barstool, Portnoy has led several charity efforts. The site raised $240,000 for the families of the Boston Marathon bombings in the wake of the attack. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated government sanctions, Barstool established The Barstool Fund, a fundraiser non-profit that helps small business owners around the country.

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