Penn Entertainment Concludes Purchase of Barstool Sports

After three years, it’s finally time to toast the done deal for Penn Entertainment. The operator now has total ownership of Barstool Sports, a 20-year-old entertainment platform and sportsbook operator.

Penn, which bought its initial stake in February 2020, announced completion of the $388 million purchase on February 17.

“Barstool is a proven, powerful media brand with an authentic voice and vast, loyal audience that provides us with a strong top of funnel for new customer acquisition and organic cross-selling opportunities across our growing interactive division,” said Penn CEO and President Jay Snowden in a statement.

Barstool helps create a massive digital footprint and ecosystem that will serve to propel Barstool Sportsbook, along with its media and gaming business.

Barstool Sports creates content distributed on podcasts, video, live events, pay-per-view and subscription.

Since Penn’s first investment in Barstool, the company has:

• Grown its audience 194 percent and recorded total podcast downloads of 1.6 billion;
• Delivered over 875,000 videos across social media channels totaling over 128 billion video views;
• Increased ad sales by 160 percent; and,
• Sold over 5 million units, including apparel, licensed products and accessories.

Penn was granted a license to operate the Barstool Sportsbook platform in Massachusetts in January. It operates a brick-and-mortar Barstool Sportsbook at the Plainridge Casino that was heavily scrutinized by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission before the license was approved.