Barstool and DraftKings Ink Betting Deal: ‘Back to Our Roots’
Barstool-DK Sports Partnership: Deal in Low Eight Figures/Year
Barstool Sports has signed a multi-year partnership with DraftKings, Barstool founder and CEO Dave Portnoy announced Sunday following the conclusion of Super Bowl 58.
The move, which has been rumored since last month, comes after PENN Entertainment parted ways with Barstool in August to pursue a deal with ESPN worth up to $2 billion. DraftKings will reportedly pay Barstool a low eight-figure deal per year, according to Sportico.
Here’s more on the new Barstool-DK Sports partnership.
Anti-Barstool crowd seeing them sign with Draft Kings #Draftkings pic.twitter.com/gf3eR4jToN
— RGF (@rgfray1) February 12, 2024
‘Lots of Zeroes’
Portnoy was widely praised for his PENN sale, in which PENN purchased Barstool for $550 million but then sold it back to him for just $1. Sportico reported that PENN took as much as an $850 million loss in the process. PENN now runs ESPN Bet and is one of DraftKings’ biggest competitors in the online sports betting industry.
“We are back in the gambling business,” Portnoy said in a video. “We just formed a partnership with DraftKings. We’re back where we started. Big, huge deal. I don’t have the numbers, lots of zeroes, maybe the biggest deal in the gambling space with a partner.”
Another video, which mimicked a scene from the movie Major League, alluded to when Barstool and DraftKings first partnered together in 2014. “We’re back to our roots,” Portnoy wrote in an adjacent tweet on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
Why Now?
The timing of this new Barstool-DK Sports partnership is no coincidence. Barstool had a no-compete with PENN through the end of the NFL season. Moving forward, Barstool will promote odds from DraftKings and benefit through referral sign-ups to the online sportsbook.
Barstool and DraftKings tipped off their new partnership on Monday with a free-to-play free-throw contest for prizes totaling $100,000. The contest was streamed live on social media, with Barstool personalities attempting to hit 41 consecutive free throws.
In an interview on Monday with Fox News, Portnoy called Barstool a “gambling company at heart.”
“We’ve been doing it since we’ve started, and whenever we place bets, either daily fantasy sports or gambling, we’ll be using DraftKings,” Portnoy added. “We’ll be promoting it.”
DraftKings Atop the Heap
As the sports betting industry grows more competitive, DraftKings continues to separate itself alongside FanDuel as one of the leaders in the industry. DraftKings reportedly spent $1.19 billion on sales and marketing in fiscal 2022, and it is on pace to top that number when 2023 results are released next month. According to Yahoo Finance, revenue is estimated at $1.2 billion, an increase of 42.8% from previous levels.
Twenty-nine U.S. states and Washington D.C. currently offer sports betting online, with North Carolina set to launch on March 11 in time for the NCAA Tournament. According to the American Gaming Association, five other states are in the stage of active legislation: Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma.
This is an especially busy time for the industry. An estimated $23.1 billion was bet on the Super Bowl in the U.S. alone, a 35% increase from last year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Barstool-DK Sports partnership.
For betting news, odds analysis and more, visit Point Spreads sports magazine.
