Dave Portnoy
Barstool Sports founder, pizza reviewer · New York
- Founded
- 2004
- Entered
- 2005
- Placed at
- 2005: first documented activity 2004, before the timeline start; shown from 2005
- Status 2026
- Active
- Metro
- New York
- Embeddedness
- 3 connections
- Confidence
- verified · strongest source primary or company
Method
Dave Portnoy starts Barstool as a four page Boston newspaper handed out on the subway in 2004 and moves it online in 2007. The Chernin Group buys a majority in 2016, Penn Entertainment pays $163 million for 36 percent in 2020 and $388 million for the rest in February 2023. Penn's 8-K of August 8, 2023 records the sale of 100 percent of Barstool back to Portnoy in exchange for non compete and other restrictive covenants, a price reported as $1, with Penn keeping the right to 50 percent of gross proceeds from any later sale or monetization; the same filing sets out the ESPN Bet license that replaced the Barstool Sportsbook. One Bite pizza reviews become his personal product and a Brooklyn festival from 2023. He signs a Fox Sports partnership in July 2025.
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The path: money and goods moving
- ownsBarstool SportsDave Portnoy founds Barstool in 2004 and regains 100 percent ownership from Penn Entertainment on August 8, 2023 in exchange for restrictive covenants and a 50 percent share of any future sale proceeds to Penn.2004 to present
- spawnedThe Chernin GroupPortnoy sells majority control of Barstool to The Chernin Group in January 2016 and moves the company to New York.2016
- licensed fromVirtual Dining ConceptsVDC runs Pardon My Cheesesteak with Barstool Sports; the year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. (unverified)2021