💰 Penn paid $550M for Barstool, sold it to Dave Portnoy for $1

Dave Portnoy had a talkative week. On the Nov. 11 episode of Tea by The Toast, he answered a passage in Sofia Franklyn's memoir that fans read as hinting he and Alex Cooper slept together, saying "She knows for a fact that's not true," per Yahoo's InTouch Weekly report. Yahoo Sports also reports he answered fans calling for The Duke to be barred from next year's Internet Invitational, saying "I don't make the list." That is the noise. The paper trail is more interesting, because it shows what a casino company paid for the company Portnoy now owns outright.

The 2020 deal: $163M for 36%

Bloomberg reported on Jan. 29, 2020 that Barstool agreed to sell a 36% stake to Penn National Gaming (Penn's name until 2022) for about $163M, valuing Barstool at about $450M. AP later broke the price into about $135M in cash and $28M in non-voting convertible preferred stock. Vox reported the deal included a further $62M after three years to reach 50%.

The timeline

The 2023 exit: $1 and a covenant

Variety reported that Penn paid about $550M in total for 100% of Barstool, then cut it loose a few months after buying the rest. The 10-Q Penn filed on Aug. 9, 2023 called the price "a nominal cash consideration ($1.00 dollar)" plus the covenants. Per Variety, Penn said the disposal would bring a pre-tax non-cash loss of $800M-$850M in the third quarter of 2023, including $705M-$720M of goodwill and intangible write-offs.

The sale came as Penn signed a deal with ESPN to rebrand Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet. Penn said the divestiture let Barstool return to its roots "without the restrictions associated with a publicly traded, licensed gaming company," per Awful Announcing's account of the release.

"it became clear that we were an unnatural owner"

Penn CEO Jay Snowden on the company's second-quarter 2023 earnings call, per Variety

"The regulated industry is probably not the best place for Barstool Sports and the type of content we make"

Dave Portnoy in an Aug. 8, 2023 video, per CNN Business

Portnoy also said in that video that he would hold Barstool "till I die." Penn's 50% claim on gross proceeds of any resale means that, even then, the casino company would be at the table.

What came after

AP reported in July 2025 that Fox Sports would carry Barstool programming and put Portnoy on its college football show. Front Office Sports reported in December 2025 that Netflix's deal for three Barstool video podcasts was worth "in the eight figures" a year, adding that Netflix declined to comment, as did Portnoy. It also reported that Barstool signed with DraftKings as its gambling sponsor after the Penn non-compete expired.

Portnoy says he does not make the Internet Invitational guest list. On the record, he does own the whole company, bought for $1 from a firm that had paid about $550M for it. MrViral notes the list is the smaller of the two decisions.