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Bros go pro with H’wood reps
Time to pay the tab!
Media watchers say that it looks like Barstool Sports is trying to turn its outsize influence in the sports world into cold hard cash — by signing a bumper deal with Hollywood behemoth United Talent Agency.
The network of blogs, podcasts and social media accounts has a massive following among the armchair quarterback crowd (and has also scored a smash hit with the female dating demo).
But it’s been losing money.
Penn Entertainment bought all shares of Barstool last year, only to sell it back to founder Dave Portnoy six months later for $1.
Penn reported that Barstool lost $16 million in the first half of 2023.
Now — back under Portnoy’s ownership — the brand seems to be trying to burnish the bottom line. “Seems to me that [the UTA deal is due to] an obvious need to raise cash by BSS,” said a source.
An insider tells us that the deal will see the agency represent “the whole Barstool brand” in “all areas.”
We’re told that means UTA’s agents will represent Portnoy himself, the Barstool brand and all of its podcast talent.
In something of a bitter irony, Barstool’s biggest success is also the one that got away.
Sex and relationships, er, expert Alex Cooper launched her now-famous podcast “Call Her Daddy” with Barstool, before jumping ship for Spotify, which reportedly bought the show for some $60 million in 2021.
It appears that another purpose of the UTA deal is to prevent repeats of such dubious achievements.
Portnoy’s wildly popular video series “One Bite Pizza Reviews,” in which he, well, reviews pizza based on his assessment of a single bite, has birthed a partnership with frozen food company Happi Foodi.
And in February, Barstool signed a deal with sports betting giant DraftKings.
Portnoy started the company in 2003 in his native Massachusetts.
