What is Barstool Sports stock price, and are they publicly traded? Barstool doesn’t have its stock symbol. However, Penn Entertainment owned them. Investors can purchase shares of PENN Entertainment under the stock symbol $PENN. During the week of August 11, 2023, Dave Portnoy announced that he’d bought back Barstool Sports and is now the sole owner.
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Barstool Sports Stock Introduction
Sports journalism has changed in the age of the internet. Barstool Sports is a prime example. Founded in 2003 in Massachusetts by Dave Portnoy, Barstool has grown from a print publication on sports gambling to a globally recognized brand. Even if you’re not a sports fan, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Portnoy and Barstool by now.
The site is primarily a news, sports, and pop culture source, emphasizing sex and masculinity. Barstool still runs its sports blog but has several different podcasts and video shows that entertain millions of fans.
Barstool is often criticized as chauvinistic and a purveyor of “bro culture.” Many of its tweets and posts are about the sexual exploits of attractive women and not actually about sports.
Sex sells, right? Portnoy is a branding genius. He’s turned Barstool into a company worth several hundred million dollars. But can you buy Barstool Sports stock?
In January 2020, Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN) bought a 36% stake in Barstool for $136 million. The partnership did wonders for both companies.
As mentioned, Barstool Sports was partly owned by the publicly traded company Penn National Gaming. Barstool itself is not a publicly traded company. So you won’t find it trading on any stock exchanges.
Since January 2020, Penn shares have had a remarkable run. Penn stock was trading at around \$25.00 per share when the partnership was announced—fast forward three months or so when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Shares of Penn tumbled. The stock hit a low of about $7.00 per share. But since then, Penn has hit an all-time high of $142.00 per share. The stock has pulled back since then but is still trading over a 10x return from March 2020. In August 2023, Dave Portnoy announced that he had fully purchased Barstool.
PENN Stock Rover Report
Is Penn ($PENN) Stock a Good Investment?
You can’t buy Barstool Sports stock, but Penn is an option. The partnership took off when Penn released its first-ever mobile sports betting app in September 2020. The app is called the Barstool Sportsbook. It’s limited to a handful of states where sports betting is legalized.
These states include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, Illinois, and Michigan. Penn has also opened several brick-and-mortar sportsbooks under the Barstool brand, which have been popular sites where some Barstool personalities have appeared.
Penn may not be a household name because its casinos do not use the Penn brand. But Penn owns over 40 racetracks and 377 different VGT or Video Gaming Terminal locations nationwide. Some of the larger ones include The Greektown Casino and Hotel in Detroit and both the Tropicana and M Resort in Las Vegas.
Penn stock’s rapid ascension is usually a sign of overbought stock. Indeed, shares have now pulled back about 40% from their highs. Penn’s stock is trading with a forward-looking price-to-earnings ratio of 25 and a price-to-sales ratio of 2.5. These are lower valuations than some of the biggest names in the casino industry, including Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ: WYNN), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), MGM (NYSE: MGM), and Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR).
The entire industry should get a boost as COVID-19 cases continue to tail off, although the surge of the delta variant has caused further closures. Still, the reopening of brick-and-mortar casinos and the return of the NFL season should help keep revenues flowing for the casino industry. So look to day trade or invest in Penn.
With Portnoy now being the sole owner of Barstool, it’ll be interesting to see how \$PENN fares moving forward, especially since he’s cashed out his \$PENN stock.
PENN TipRanks Report
Barstool Sports Products
Barstool is known for creating some of the more memorable personalities online. Portnoy is an extremely engaging person. He seeks these qualities out when he hires for his brand.
Some of the best products from Barstool have been from Portnoy himself. You can’t trade Barstool Sports stock. Let’s take a look at the things Barstool is most known for!
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1. The Barstool Fund
Part of Portnoy’s charisma is that he’s relatable. There’s a certain humility in how he acts. Despite being a multi-millionaire, Portnoy always speaks up for the little guys.
The Barstool Fund was Portnoy’s way of giving back to small businesses that were hit hard by the restrictions from the pandemic. Barstool raised over $41 million in total. They received donations from celebrities like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Elon Musk.
Portnoy himself donated $500,000. Penn National Gaming threw a modest $4.6 million into the fund. He recorded phone calls with local businesses nationwide that would receive donations from the fund.
2. Call Her Daddy
This podcast was formerly on the Barstool Sports site featuring internet sensation Alex Cooper. The podcast covered various aspects of sexuality from a woman’s point of view and was a smash hit. Call Her Daddy was originally founded by Cooper and her partner, Sofia Franklyn.
After a public dispute with Barstool about payments, Franklyn left the show. Cooper stayed on while looking for a new home. Cooper certainly found it when she signed a $60 million deal with Spotify to be the official home of Call Her Daddy. In 2020, the podcast was the fifth most popular podcast on Spotify. Franklyn now has her podcast, Sofia, with an F, which touches on themes similar to Call Her Daddy.
3. Davey Day Trader
Another alter-ego of Portnoy, Davey Day Trader is a stock trader who cannot seem to buy the right stocks. Portnoy live broadcasts himself trading on the stock market, which became popular during the pandemic. But Davey Day Trader’s investments are not always good. And he has been criticized for leading his followers astray.
Davey Day Trader also tries trading cryptocurrencies and famously made a massive investment in Safemoon, which has since plummeted. The character is well known for his green hammer prop, wild outbursts, and mantra that ‘stonks only go up. ‘He’d for sure be trading Barstool Sports stock.
4. Barstool Sportsbook
When Penn created it, we could see that its investment in the online brand was paying off. Portnoy himself advertised the sportsbook to his millions of social media followers. He posted his bets and even announced promotions that the app was providing to bettors. Portnoy is well known as an avid sports gambler and sometimes gets carried away with the number of bets he posts. He also loves betting on his hometown favorite teams in Boston and his alma mater, the University of Michigan.
5. Spittin Chiclets
An underrated podcast on Barstool composed mostly of ex-NHL hockey players like Paul Bisonette and Ryan Whitney. The podcast dives into the hockey world from the players’ perspectives. NHL players are regular guests on the show and provide excellent first-hand experiences of the game’s best moments. Spittin Chiclets even created the mega-popular Pink Whitney Vodka, a pink grapefruit-flavored vodka made by New Amsterdam. The podcast’s name, Spittin Chiclets, refers to when hockey players get their teeth knocked out during the game.
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There are many other pieces of Barstool intellectual property, including the popular Pardon My Take podcast with Barstool Big Cat. One that narrowly missed this list is Portnoy’s Pizza Reviews. In this series, Portnoy visits small pizzerias around the country and provides a review and valuable exposure to the restaurants. It is just another way in which Portnoy and Barstool have worked hard to support small businesses around America.
Final Thoughts: Barstool Sports Stock
You can’t trade Barstool Sports stock. They’d be an incredibly popular stock for investors if publicly traded. Unfortunately, for those looking to buy Barstool Sports stock, there isn’t a way to do so now. The best way to invest in Barstool Sports was to buy shares of Penn National Gaming.
Now that Dave Portnoy controls the company, it’ll be interesting to see if he takes it public. Although, if I had to guess, I’d say that isn’t going to happen. A privately owned company means no answering to outside forces. It will be fascinating to see what happens with both Barstool Sport and $PENN now these big changes are in place.
