Barstool Sports Thriving In P-C Climate

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and CEO Erika Nardini
refuse to let advertisers dictate content

Barstool Sports is flourishing as media’s raunchy bad boy in today's politically correct climate, and CEO Erika Nardini says their secret formula is simple: Not “giving a f---.”

Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, known by fans as “El Presidente,” says his company is essentially a comedy empire camouflaged as a sports website that never sought its anti-PC reputation.

“That’s just who we are,” Portnoy told Fox News during a candid side-by-side conversation with Nardini at Barstool’s New York City headquarters. “We create content at Barstool Sports for people who like Barstool Sports. We’re not trying to appease people who don’t like us. Everyone is just so sensitive now about everything."

"We’re not trying to appease people who don’t like us. Everyone is just so sensitive now about everything."

Barstool employees have been accused of everything from encouraging online harassment by its fans to using derogatory language about women. The site’s content is often vulgar, alleged marital infidelity of one of the brand’s biggest stars has become tabloid fodder, and Portnoy was physically removed from the Super Bowl earlier this month amid an on-going feud with the National Football League -- but fans seem to embrace it all.

“We have an audience, we have a point of view, we do things differently and we’re investing in that,” Nardini said. “It’s not that we’re controversial. We’re unafraid."

Portnoy started Barstool as a “gambling and sports” newspaper he distributed around Boston back in 2003 and things exploded from there. He sold a majority stake of Barstool to The Chernin Group in early 2016, moving the company’s headquarters from Boston to New York City in the process. Portnoy stuck around to oversee content and hired Nardini as the company's first CEO.

Since then, Barstool has added roughly 130 employees and partnered with social media brands like Snapchat and Facebook. The company’s podcasts bring in 25 million live streams per month and all together, over 1 billion minutes of Barstool content is consumed annually.

Barstool also runs a Sirius XM station, created a pizza review app, promotes amateur boxing matches, wants to invest in younger brands and sells a ton of merchandise. Commerce makes up roughly half of Barstool’s revenue and a company spokesperson said it sold over $1 million worth of gear during the 2018 World Series alone.