It's clearly too early to know if PENN Entertainment's decision to jettison the Barstool Sportsbook brand in favor of ESPN as its mobile sportsbook brand will work out. There will certainly be winners and losers in this decision, and the ramifications may not be known for years.
But according to numerous observers of the sportsbook industry space whom asked about the deal, there is one big winner in all this: Dave Portnoy, the founder – and once again 100% owner – of Barstool Sports.
“Portnoy is probably one of the 10 biggest individual winners post-PASPA,” said Chris Grove, the partner emeritus and strategic advisor at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a gaming research company. “He’s not in [DraftKings CEO] Jason Robins or [Flutter CEO] Peter Jackson territory, but there are far, far, far more names behind him than ahead of him. He got the money, an incredible face-saving exit, and ended up with a bigger and more valuable Barstool than he had before the PENN misadventure started.”
At first blush, it may seem Portnoy is a big loser in this deal. After all, Barstool Sportsbook is one of the biggest – if not biggest – sportsbook flops in the post-PASPA era. PENN spent $551 million over a period of several years to complete the acquisition of Barstool Sports and use the brand, only to give it up after the sportsbook failed to reach the top tier of operators. The sportsbook is to be rebranded as ESPN BET in November under the new PENN-ESPN partnership.