Dave Portnoy founded the popular media company Barstool Sports in 2003. But the outspoken founder had not been the absolute owner of the media giant for a long time now. Portnoy had sold almost half of his company to Penn National Gaming and then sold the remaining again at a fortune. However, all that changed on Tuesday, and Portnoy regained control of the company in an unexpected turn of events.

PENN Entertainment was a minority shareholder in Barstool Sports after buying part of the company for $163 million. The casino and sports gaming giant invested $551 million more to take control of the whole company. But, now PENN Entertainment is looking forward to a multi-billion dollar deal with another Sports company. This gave Dave Portnoy to broker a lucrative deal that gave him the ownership of Barstool Sports back.

Dave Portnoy seizes the opportunity to regain control over his company

Dave Portnoy’s dear friend and Barstool Sports personality Ben Mintz was let go by Penn. Mintz had rapped for a few seconds, which was against the company’s policy. Now, as the owner of Barstool Sports, Portnoy may recall Ben Mintz into the company. The founder and now owner of Barstool Sports had been looking for a chance to win back control of the media house and finally got the chance earlier this year. PENN Entertainment has been in talks with ESPN to form a successful partnership. Yesterday the company announced that they have officially signed a multi-year agreement with ESPN. As part of this two-billion-dollar deal, both companies will launch a branded sportsbook called ESPN BET.

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PENN already handles mobile sportsbooks in 16 states, which it will now relinquish to ESPN and pay it $1.5 billion over the next decade. In return, the latter will buy 31.8 million PENN Entertainment shares. PENN gained a substantial boost in stock market value because of this announcement. This was the perfect moment to work out a deal with PENN for Barstool Sports, as any bad publicity would have jeopardized the deal. Dave Portnoy managed to do the unthinkable and shared his success story on social media.

Read More: “Bronny Just Had a Heart Attack”: Dave Portnoy Shuts Down Michigan NCAA News After LeBron James’ Son Suffers Cardiac Arrest

He posted a video on his Twitter account that was shared on Business Insider, with words that read, “PENN Entertainment and Barstool Sports have gone our separate ways. So that is right, for the first time in a decade, I own 100% of Barstool Sports”. Portnoy later explained what this victory meant for the company and how he got there.

Dave Portnoy’s journey to regain full control of Barstool Sports

When Dave Portnoy first launched Barstool Sports, he wanted it to be as brash and unapologetic. However, PENN had connections with other mainstream media houses like the New York Times. So, they brought many regulations which hindered the freedom of the hosts at Barstool. During the video uploaded on Twitter, Portnoy revealed his struggle with PENN, saying, “Every time we did something, it was one step forward, two steps back”.

So, Portnoy was determined to get out with any kind of deal he could manage. He was given the stocks of Barstool Sports on the condition of a “non-compete and other restrictive covenants”. The new owner also had to legally agree to give half of the profits earned by him during a future sale of the company or other revenue-generating incident. However, Dave Portnoy was ecstatic to be back at the helm of the Barstool Sports.

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