David Portnoy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Portnoy
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Portnoy at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2019
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| Born |
David Scott Portnoy
March 22, 1977 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Employer | Barstool Sports |
| Spouse(s) |
Renee Portnoy
(m. 2009; separated 2017) |
David Scott Portnoy (born March 22, 1977) is an American businessman and online personality. He is best known as the founder and owner of Barstool Sports. This company focuses on sports and popular culture.
Contents
Early Life
David Portnoy grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He is Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah when he was younger.
He went to Swampscott High School. After high school, he attended the University of Michigan in 1995. He earned a degree in education from the university.
Career
Barstool Sports
After college, Portnoy moved to Boston. In 2004, he started his own company called Barstool Sports. At first, Barstool was a small four-page sports newspaper. Portnoy would hand it out on subway platforms and street corners in Boston. The newspaper was made for young men.
Over time, freelance writers joined the paper. In 2007, Barstool grew and became a blog online. Portnoy developed a strong online personality known as "El Presidente." His writing style became very popular with young men.
In 2016, a company called The Chernin Group bought most of Barstool. Later, in 2020, Penn Entertainment bought a large part of the company. They bought the rest of it in 2023. However, Portnoy bought Barstool back in August 2023 for a small amount of money.
Pizza Reviews
David Portnoy also has a popular online show called One Bite Pizza Reviews. On this show, he visits pizza restaurants around the world. He tries their pizza and rates it on a scale from 0 to 10.
He started the show in 2017. His goal was to review every pizza place in Manhattan. Sometimes, famous guests join him on his reviews. Portnoy rarely gives a pizza a score above 9.0. However, when he praises a pizza, the restaurant often becomes much more popular.
In 2023, The New York Times newspaper said Portnoy is very influential in the world of food social media. They noted that he can "change the fate of a pizzeria" with just one review. In September 2023, Portnoy and Barstool Sports hosted the first One Bite Pizza Festival in Brooklyn, New York.
Personal Life
Portnoy married Renee Portnoy in 2009. They separated in 2017. From 2021 to 2023, he dated model Silvana Mojica. In 2019, Portnoy mentioned that his net worth was around $100 million.
Helping Others
In 2020, Portnoy started the Barstool Fund. This fund helped small businesses that were struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He donated $500,000 to start it. By May 2021, the fund had raised over $39 million. This money helped 348 different businesses.
In 2024, Portnoy donated $277,000 to the LifeLine Animal Project. This is an animal shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. The money came from selling t-shirts, hoodies, and hats on the Barstool Sports website. These items featured Miss Peaches, a dog Portnoy adopted from the shelter.
Also in 2024, after a police officer named Jonathan Diller was killed, Portnoy helped raise money for Diller's family. He raised more than $1.5 million. This included money from t-shirt sales and a matching donation from Portnoy himself.
Views on Unions
In 2019, David Portnoy made some statements about employees forming a union. A union is a group of workers who join together to protect their rights and improve their working conditions. Portnoy's statements suggested he would fire employees who tried to form a union.
The New York State Department of Labor responded. They said it is against the law to take action against employees for union activities. U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez also commented. She said that workers in the U.S. have the right to organize for better conditions.
Portnoy later agreed to an informal agreement. He deleted his statements about unions. He also released a T-shirt that read "Union Buster".
See also
- Barstool conservatism
