Dave Portnoy dropped an absolute bomb on the media and business world last week by reacquiring Barstool Sports from PENN Entertainment for a single dollar.
After the defacto three-team trade between Barstool, PENN, and ESPN went down, Portnoy has said all the right things about his former partner. I believe him when he says he wishes PENN the best. I also believe him when he says his antics have been a hindrance to the company trying to secure gambling licenses. It was listed as one of the reasons why the partnership no longer worked.
An unfiltered Dave Portnoy is undeniably good for Barstool Sports. The chains being ripped off, and no longer having to worry about what government regulators are going to think about what you say, think, feel, and distribute has to be a weight off of his shoulders. The content he’ll create will continue to be entertaining as hell.
But is an unfiltered Dave Portnoy the best thing for Barstool Sports, the media company? The business?
Portnoy is polarizing. By design. He’s one of those people that you instantly develop an opinion on. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny his prowess. Whether it be written, social media, audio, or video, the man creates insanely compelling content. Constantly.
Unfortunately, that sometimes leads to some foot-in-mouth moments. I found his blog and subsequent videos calling his employees “f—ing brain dead” for not showing up early on the first day after he repurchased the company hilarious. Because it is! It’s objectively funny to see a boss walk around his empty office and the first sentence out of his mouth is “How stupid is this f—ing company?”
And he had a point! Wednesday, August 9th should have been National Kiss El Presidente’s Ass Day at Barstool HQ. But his employees treated it like any other Wednesday. Hilarious content. Excellently done.
However, that video came less than 20 minutes after a video where he decried PENN’s former policy on anonymous reporting illegal or unethical behavior in the office.
“You wanna f—ing narc on somebody here, we do it publicly on camera,” Portnoy said in the video. “No more bitches. No more f—ing ‘this’, ‘that’. Make a difference? Shut the f— up! You got a problem? You turn the cameras on and you settle it for content. That’s how we do it here now.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why that statement is problematic. Especially for someone with less than savory allegations made against them previously.
Those two videos back-to-back show the dichotomy of Dave Portnoy. Hilarious one minute, making me question if he truly understands the way the world works in 2023 the next.
But that’s also the allure of Dave Portnoy, right? I think you’re lying if there wasn’t a part of you that wishes you were fearless enough to say the things he says, do the things he does, and act the way he acts with no regard for the consequences. It’s why Barstool works. He’s created a culture — through all of its faults — that appreciates and develops that attitude. And it’s why people flock to the brand in droves.
Do advertisers stay away from the brand because of Portnoy’s antics? Almost assuredly. I would put good money that probably once a week Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan fields concerns from current or potential advertisers about some piece of content created by Portnoy.
But that’s the beauty — some may use a different word — of Barstool. If they were to assuage those concerns with their talent and say “Hey, Dunkin really wants you to tone it down on (insert complaint here),” the outlet would lose its soul. And its soul is why it got to where it is today.
The company has done an excellent job of partnering with brands that understand what Barstool is at its core. Instead of chasing every dollar, it has chased the right dollars. And that’s an important distinction. And when that’s your approach, I don’t think you have to concern yourself about how your content affects the bottom line.
Ultimately, I liken Dave Portnoy to fighting in hockey. More advertisers come for him than stay away because of him. I think advertisers know what they’re getting with Barstool Sports. And the savvy ones — the ones that know its target audience and know that Portnoy, Big Cat, PFT, KFC, et al. can deliver it — can look past everything else they might not love about the brand.
But there’s a fine line these days. In everything. And for better or worse, watching Dave Portnoy sometimes do backflips while blindfolded as he walks that line always has me on the edge of my seat.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
