Barstool Sports will be fully owned by Penn Entertainment by next year

Penn has owned a 36% stake in Barstool Sports since 2020, which it purchased for $163 million.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy (center) dives into a Tacconelli’s pizza alongside Flyers goalie Kevin Hayes (left) and Phillies slugger Bryce Harper.Read moreTwitter / @stoolpresidente / Twitter / @stoolpresidente

Published Aug. 18, 2022, 11:31 a.m. ET

Barstool Sports, the controversial sports media outlet founded 18 years ago by David Portnoy, will soon be fully owned by Penn Entertainment Inc.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Penn said it would exercise its right to acquire the remaining shares of Barstool Sports it doesn’t own. The company said it would complete the purchase by February 2023.

Barstool, which began as a print publication in 2003 before becoming a blog, has grown a massive fan base for its racy and at times obscene coverage of sports and culture. The tone is driven but the beleaguered Portnoy, also known as “El Presidente” to followers, and has since expanded into podcasts and on social media.

Penn has owned a 36% stake in Barstool since 2020, which it purchased for $163 million, and Bloomberg reported it will pay $387 million more to own it outright. The company’s stock closed down 0.86%, to $35.72, in Thursday trading.

The Berks County-based company, which operates Hollywood Casino York and dozens of other casino properties across the country, changed its name from Penn National Gaming earlier this month. It launched a Barstool-branded sports betting app and placed sportsbooks at properties nationwide, which it has said has helped attract younger customers at a lower cost.

Earlier this month, Penn reported second-quarter revenues of $1.6 billion, up more than 5% compared with last year.

Penn has drawn scrutiny from gambling regulators in states such as Nevada and Indiana after violent sexual-misconduct accusations against Portnoy were reported by Insider, including by one women who said she suffered a broken rib and two who claimed he filmed them without their consent. Portnoy has denied wrongdoing and sued the news outlet, claiming the interactions he had with the five women were consensual.

“There will be no settling. No amount they can pay me to get them off their backs,” Portnoy wrote in a February blog post. “I won’t rest till I put these people out of business.”

Insider editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson defended the reports, writing in an editor’s note the stories were “in the public interest and newsworthy.”

“It is wrong to take a sexual encounter that began consensually and turn it violent without first asking one’s sexual partner for permission,” Carlson wrote. “Five young women have now told Insider they experienced sex with Portnoy that began consensually but turned more violent and degrading than they would have agreed to.”

In addition to its digital presence, Barstool has its own channel on Sling TV. It’s also the sponsor and exclusive broadcaster of college football’s Arizona Bowl, but last year’s game between Boise State and Central Michigan was canceled due to COVID-19. It also opened its own sports bar — Barstool Sansom Street — in Philadelphia in March.

Barstool isn’t the only media property Penn has acquired. Last year, it purchased TheScore, a Canada-based sports media outlet, for about $2 billion in cash and stock.