Dave Portnoy recently revealed that he has repurchased Barstool Sports, the bold sports and pop-culture media company he founded, from Penn Entertainment at a remarkably low price.
To be precise, Portnoy paid only one dollar for Barstool Sports. This comes after Penn Entertainment, a prominent casino and online gambling operator, had acquired full control of Barstool for a staggering $550 million, only to later decide to let it go.
In a 10-Q filing submitted on Wednesday, the company disclosed, “Penn sold 100% of the outstanding shares of Barstool to David Portnoy in exchange for a nominal cash consideration ($1.00 dollar) and certain non-compete and other restrictive covenants.”
Penn stated in the filing that the deal with Portnoy will result in a “pre-tax non-cash loss” of approximately $800 million to $850 million, including write-offs for goodwill and intangible assets totaling $705 million to $720 million. This loss is associated with the disposal of the business and will be incurred in the third quarter of 2023.
Additionally, Penn has the right to receive 50% of the gross proceeds from any future sale or monetization event involving Barstool. However, Portnoy stated emphatically that he will never sell Barstool.
The unexpected sellback of Barstool Sports to Portnoy coincided with Penn’s major deal with ESPN to rebrand their online sports-betting business as ESPN Bet. As part of this agreement, Penn will pay ESPN $1.5 billion over a 10-year period and provide warrants worth approximately $500 million, allowing ESPN to purchase 31.8 million Penn common shares over the next decade in exchange for media, marketing services, brand rights, and more.
According to a video announcement made by Portnoy on August 8th, “we underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world.”
Portnoy added, “We got denied [gambling] licenses because of me. So the regulated industry is probably not the best place for Barstool Sports and the type of content we make.”
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
