Barstool Sports is launching sports bars in Philadelphia and Chicago.
An earnings report from Penn National Gaming — which holds a minority stake in Barstool — reveals that the sports entertainment company is taking on several new ventures as it continues to grow in popularity.
The earnings report explains:
Not only does Barstool Sports’ creative content, exclusive bets, and social media reach provide a competitive advantage for our mobile sportsbook via low-cost customer acquisition, but it also provides us with the brand leverage to drive our omnichannel strategy as the Barstool audience converts to our core gaming businesses.
Barstool Sports, the media company, has continued to show tremendous growth this year both financially and in terms of audience metrics, as it has continued to evolve into a highly diversified media, entertainment and lifestyle brand… The continued growth and diversification of the company’s revenue streams, including advertising, licensing and merchandise, has meaningfully enhanced the value of the media asset, which we believe is still underappreciated and extends well beyond the benefits to our sports betting business.
Penn revealed that it is, therefore “making progress on the build-out of stand-alone Barstool-branded sports bars” in the two major cities.
Likewise, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy revealed that he is transforming the “Barstool Fund” — a project launched in December to help small businesses survive government-imposed lockdowns — into an official nonprofit.
“We’ve decided to turn The Barstool Fund into a full-time charity,” said Portnoy on his Instagram page last week. “Something that will be existing not only during COVID, and hopefully COVID doesn’t come back… but [for] decades and making positive impacts for entrepreneurs, which I truly believe are the backbone of the United States.”
“We’ve done something very special, very unique, and we’ve created a brand and a name that people trust,” he continued. “They know that when you donate to The Barstool Fund, we’ll get the money and get it to small businesses instantly.”
The Barstool Fund has raised nearly $42 million to aid 443 small businesses and is now searching for a full-time director.
Beyond his leadership of Barstool and live-streamed pizza reviews, Portnoy is known for speaking publicly against cancel culture.
“There is an audience that appreciates, and it’s not even Left or Right, it’s kind of both, like, ‘I like how these guys aren’t backing down,’” he recently explained to Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro. “And our audience allows us to do that, so people have always asked, ‘Why do you fight back’ or ‘Why do you push back’ or ‘Why don’t you just shut up when someone takes a shot at you that you feel is unfair,’ it’s like, I’m not going to do that. I will never throw the first punch, but if you throw a shot at me on Twitter — out of the clouds — it’s not my responsibility to protect you.”