Dave Portnoy has promised to revive Barstool Sports as he claims to have enough money to drag it out of the hole it’s in right now.
The platform has been losing money and Portnoy is set to cut a quarter of his workforce after purchasing it back from Penn Entertainment a few weeks ago.
Speaking to Tucker Carlson this week, Portnoy revealed exactly how he plans to save his struggling brand, pointing out that he’s rich and has the wherewithal to do what needs to be done.
There’s hardly any doubt of that. After all, he sold Barstool to Penn Entertainment for a total of $551 million and bought it back for just $1. But, having regained sole ownership of the company, it’s set to undergo massive layoffs in order to stem the bleeding.
Asked by Carlson how much money the company lost last year, Portnoy estimated it was around $10 million.
“It is a lot,” he admitted in quotes transcribed by Awful Announcing. “It’s a ton, but I’m rich and I can fix it. So if I have to lose money and pay for it for a month or two, fine, but we’ll get back to profitable. We’ll have some layoffs, but we’ll get back to profitability pretty quick.”
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Dave told Tucker Barstool was losing money under Penn as the latter was still growing. And, when they were presented with the option of partnering with ESPN, the choice was an easy one.
He also suggested a lot more people would have lost their jobs had Penn stayed in charge.
“They would have optimized it and people who weren’t making money probably would have lost their jobs,” the 46-year-old said. “Unfortunately, I have a bigger heart than people give me credit for. I’ve got these idiots at Barstool who have been with me for 15-20 years – the same people. If they don’t work for me, I don’t know, what are they going to do, bag groceries?
“They’re morons, Tucker, they’re truly morons. They fit in our circus in our moronic world. So, I looked at it and Barstool was losing money, I said, ‘I’ll take it back.’ We’re losing a bunch, so I got to fix it, but I know I can save all our jobs, and get us back on the profitability course.”
Pretty bold from Dave there. But you have to admire his confidence.
