Rethinking Barstool?

Dan Murfman

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I never would have guessed that Klemmer was SeanBerry. On here he would argue and never back down. He would be on Kirk's podcast and he Kirk would walk all over him without any pushback. I did enjoy his short lived podcast where he attempted to go to a movie everyday for a year. I think he made 4 months until he got covid down in Mississippi.
 

nattysez

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Hahaha no that's the wrong interpretation. In other words, I agree with the poster that the klemmer/barstool collaboration isn't actually that exciting.
Wasn't Berry the creator of LOL BOO HOO? I was just looking for an excuse to use it in the thread.
 

luckiestman

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I just want to know the logistics of the pizza. Sally’s and Pepe’s have giant coal fired ovens. What is the plan for the festival?
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Very odd: there are some excellent pizza food trucks that outfit ovens on trailers, but not a lot of brick-and-mortar establishments that can do both and produce an identical product. Door dash to the festival site and reheat?
 

Red Averages

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Penn has divested from Barstool Sports, sending it back to Dave Portnoy.

PENN is now launching ESPN BET with Disney instead.

Night night Barstool.
 

radsoxfan

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Wow.

Kind of amazed Penn pulled off a deal with ESPN but obviously ditching Barstool was a condition.

Portnoy probably bought it back at a discount and I bet still owns a ton of PENN stock so prob a win for him.

Edit: Sounds like he got it back for free, with the promise to give PENN 50% of any future sale. Which is why he just said he will never sell again and when he dies it'll go to Dan/Kevin or their kids.

Have to admit that's a pretty incredible turn of events after getting 500M+ for it.
 
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Rusty13

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So Barstool revenue stream is basically down to podcasts, streaming and pizza reviews huh?
 

luckiestman

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Wow.

Kind of amazed Penn pulled off a deal with ESPN but obviously ditching Barstool was a condition.

Portnoy probably bought it back at a discount and I bet still owns a ton of PENN stock so prob a win for him.

Edit: Sounds like he got it back for free, with the promise to give PENN 50% of any future sale. Which is why he just said he will never sell again and when he dies it'll go to Dan/Kevin or their kids.

Have to admit that's a pretty incredible turn of events after getting 500M+ for it.

So he got $500M and now owns the company again? Seems like a good deal.
 

nattysez

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So The Ringer + pizza? I only know one of their shows. How much content do they put out?
That's a pretty good summary. They have a lot of TikTok content.

The article mentioned a non-compete. I am VERY curious what that means. If it only means Barstool can't operate a new sportsbook, probably not a big deal. If it means Barstool can't advertise for/partner with other online sports betting entities, that's going to be a major drag on potential ad revenue.
 

Red Averages

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So he got $500M and now owns the company again? Seems like a good deal.
Didn’t he get Penn stock?, which is down over 80% since 2020.

he also bought back barstool, presumably not for free or that would have been said (maybe I missed it?)

I suspect he did well on the initial exchange and then lost most of it. Barstool is now solely a content provider. He’s still done well but, let’s not expect him to be worth half a bill. Barstool is worth much less than 3 years ago. He also admits in his video the company was denied licenses and did worse because of him and perceptions towards him. We should suspect advertisers have a similar stance.
 
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luckiestman

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Didn’t he get Penn stock?, which is down over 80% since 2020.
I have no idea what he got or what he sold. He claims that he will still hold their stock in something I just watched on Twitter. What would you value Barstool at?
 

Red Averages

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I have no idea what he got or what he sold. He claims that he will still hold their stock in something I just watched on Twitter. What would you value Barstool at?
No idea. They were bought on the premise their target market would launch PENN for massive success with their gambling platform and lead it to a meaningful share of the market. That failed miserably. So much so, that PENN divested entirely and is paying ESPN $1.5bn over 10 years to get away from barstool and to ESPN.
 

nattysez

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Didn’t he get Penn stock?, which is down over 80% since 2020.

he also bought back barstool, presumably not for free or that would have been said (maybe I missed it?)

I suspect he did well on the initial exchange and then lost most of it. Barstool is now solely a content provider. He’s still done well but, let’s not expect him to be worth half a bill. Barstool is worth much less than 3 years ago. He also admits in his video the company was denied licenses and did worse because of him and perceptions towards him. We should suspect advertisers have a similar stance.
Penn paid $163m for 36% of Barstool. The PENN price at the time was $29.83.
Penn then announced this February that they'd acquired the rest of Barstool for $388m. PENN was around $32.
It's tumbled since - closed at $24.84 today. The AH price is currently around $28.

Portnoy might have left a ton of money on the table if he didn't cash out in early 2021 when the PENN price was up to $130 (if he was even allowed to do so), but I suspect he still pocketed a lot of money.

I don't know what podcast metrics can be trusted, but for the sake of comparison, it seems like the Ringer and Barstool each have one podcast in the US top 100. Another highly-rated podcast, "Call Her Daddy," WAS a Barstool podcast, but I believe that woman left for greener pastures.
 

radsoxfan

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So he got $500M and now owns the company again? Seems like a good deal.
Twitter rumors are that he paid $0 aside from the non-competes and 50% of any future sale.

In which case he's made all his $ still (of course the 500M was not close to all his) and anything that becomes of Barstool at this point is gravy. Hence his comment he'll never sell again and give the company away to his buddies and their kids.

Agree the restrictive covenants will be interesting. I'm sure at minimum they can't start a rival sportsbook, but of course Barstool will want to get ad revenue or partner with other online gambling companies.

I bet there is another big shake-up coming. Nardini probably was interested in being CEO of a rising company, not the Barstool remnants. And of course PENN was funding the operation at this point, not Portnoy. So would assume likely some personnel cuts coming.
 
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nattysez

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Twitter rumors are that he paid $0 aside from the non-competes and 50% of any future sale.

In which case he's made all his $ still (of course the 500M was not close to all his) and anything that becomes of Barstool at this point is gravy. Hence his comment he'll never sell again and give the company away to his buddies and their kids.

Agree the restrictive covenants will be interesting. I'm sure at minimum they can't start a rival sportsbook, but of course Barstool will want to get ad revenue or partner with other online gambling companies.

I bet there is another big shake-up coming. Nardini probably was interested in being CEO of a rising company, not the Barstool remnants. And of course PENN was funding the operation at this point, not Portnoy. So would assume likely some personnel cuts coming.
Personnel cuts are inevitable, I think.

Good point on Nardini, though you might make the CEO hall of fame* if you take a wayward company, sell it for $500m, buy it back for nothing, then turn it into something huge again.

*not a real thing
 

radsoxfan

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Personnel cuts are inevitable, I think.

Good point on Nardini, though you might make the CEO hall of fame* if you take a wayward company, sell it for $500m, buy it back for nothing, then turn it into something huge again.

*not a real thing
Portnoy will talk a big game about being "back" as full time owner. But he had one foot out the door and has already made his money now.

I'm sure at first he will be going full-bore, but long term motivation level for him is probably a lot different now compared to 5-10 years ago. Will be interesting to see how it shakes out.
 

Patriot_Reign

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First thing Portnoy did was hire back Mitzy.

For those who don't know maybe six months ago he was live streaming singing a hip hop song karaoke style when he dropped a N bomb that was in the song.
PENN freaked and despite Portnoy and Nardini going to bat for him they demanded he be terminated.
 

Patriot_Reign

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but long term motivation level for him is probably a lot different now compared to 5-10 years ago.
That's already started. As far as I can see from his social media stuff is that he spends a ton of time at his places in Miami and the Hamptons.
 

radsoxfan

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That's already started. As far as I can see from his social media stuff is that he spends a ton of time at his places in Miami and the Hamptons.
For sure, that's why I said he already had one foot out the door.

Even now as a 100% owner, I wonder if he has the long term motivation to rebuild Barstool given how much $ he already made and the fact that he has to give 50% of any future sale to Penn.
 

TripleOT

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So Portnoy went from owning 100% of Barstool to owning 49% in 2016, cashing out for an estimated $12 million, then cashing out again for around $80 million when PENN bought in three years ago, owning 28% of the company, then snagging another $110 million when PENN bought 100% ownership six months ago, owning 0% of the company, to now owning 100% of Barstool?

Portnoy cashed out for a guesstimated $200 million, bought it back for a reported “steal” (would have to relinquish 50% of any future sale to PENN), and now he can run Barstool however he wants. If he retained a lot of PENN stock, he can have the best of both worlds, running his site unchecked, and cashing in from PENN’s sports book’s tie in with ESPN .
 

radsoxfan

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So Portnoy went from owning 100% of Barstool to owning 49% in 2016, cashing out for an estimated $12 million, then cashing out again for around $80 million when PENN bought in three years ago, owning 28% of the company, then snagging another $110 million when PENN bought 100% ownership six months ago, owning 0% of the company, to now owning 100% of Barstool?

Portnoy cashed out for a guesstimated $200 million, bought it back for a reported “steal” (would have to relinquish 50% of any future sale to PENN), and now he can run Barstool however he wants. If he retained a lot of PENN stock, he can have the best of both worlds, running his site unchecked, and cashing in from PENN’s sports book’s tie in with ESPN .
I think that's right, though on the other side of things....

Portnoy as a mainstream partner (especially in a highly regulated world of sports betting) was pretty clearly a failure. Sounds like Penn was able to pivot well, but even if Barstool rebounds, it's hard to imagine anyone else is being interested in that type of partnership with Portnoy or Barstool in the future.

But at this point, he probably doesn't care too much.
 

TripleOT

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For sure, that's why I said he already had one foot out the door.

Even now as a 100% owner, I wonder if he has the long term motivation to rebuild Barstool given how much $ he already made and the fact that he has to give 50% of any future sale to Penn.
As we have seen with the uber rich, like Bezos and Musk, and the less uber rich, like John Henry, having your own media company is attractive. I’m guessing Portnoy will still be big on providing content, even if he parcels out almost all of the responsibility of running the site to others. Lots of people are hundred millionaires, but few of them have their own platform where they can reach millions of people daily.
 

TripleOT

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I think that's right, though on the other side of things....

Portnoy as a mainstream partner (especially in a highly regulated world of sports betting) was pretty clearly a failure. Sounds like Penn was able to pivot well, but even if Barstool rebounds, it's hard to imagine anyone else is being interested in that type of partnership with Portnoy or Barstool in the future.

But at this point, he probably doesn't care too much.
How could no one have foreseen the problems a gaming company would have with state regulators because of some of the controversial Barstool content? PENN must have included a permanent non-compete regarding partnering up with another sports betting company when it gifted Barstool to Portnoy. I wonder if the non-compete extends to advertisers.
 

radsoxfan

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How could no one have foreseen the problems a gaming company would have with state regulators because of some of the controversial Barstool content? PENN must have included a permanent non-compete regarding partnering up with another sports betting company when it gifted Barstool to Portnoy. I wonder if the non-compete extends to advertisers.
So much of their current content is gambling related (and was long before PENN) so it would be funny if they're not allowed to get any ad $ from DraftKings etc.

Given the reported sale "price", the non compete might be pretty extensive. They will have to sell a lot of High Noon and Pirate Water and whatever other nonsense drinks they promote.
 

JCizzle

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How could no one have foreseen the problems a gaming company would have with state regulators because of some of the controversial Barstool content? PENN must have included a permanent non-compete regarding partnering up with another sports betting company when it gifted Barstool to Portnoy. I wonder if the non-compete extends to advertisers.
I imagine not being able to use gambling advertisers would be hugely challenging for a company in their market.