David Portnoy facts for kids

Quick facts for kids David Portnoy
Portnoy at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2019
Born	David Scott Portnoy (1977-03-22) March 22, 1977 (age 48)
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 social media personality. He is the founder and owner of sports and popular culture company Barstool Sports.

Early life

Portnoy grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. He is Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah.

He attended Swampscott High School and one of his high school classmates was ESPN's Todd McShay. He began attending the University of Michigan in 1995, graduating with a degree in education.

Career

Barstool Sports

After college, Portnoy moved to Boston and began working at Yankee Group, an IT market research firm. In 2004, Portnoy left the Yankee Group and founded Barstool Sports. The early iteration of Barstool was a four-page sports newspaper that Portnoy handed out on subway platforms and street corners in Boston. The paper was meant to appeal to young men and rejected political correctness. Early advertisers in the newspaper included offshore betting websites such as partypoker, which was operating in the United States illegally. The contents of the newspaper was originally solely written by Portnoy, but freelance writers, including Todd McShay, joined the paper. At first, the paper struggled, but gained traction in 2004. In 2007, Barstool expanded to a blog.

Portnoy gradually cultivated his persona as "El Presidente", a blunt and candid character. His writing was well-received among young men and the publication subsequently became a mainstay of bro culture. Peter Chernin's The Chernin Group purchased a majority stake of Barstool in January 2016. In 2020, Penn Entertainment purchased a 36% stake in Barstool Sports for $163 million, including $135 million in cash and $28 million in Penn non-voting convertible preferred stock. Penn acquired the remainder of the company in February 2023 for $388 million. Portnoy re-purchased Barstool in August 2023 for one dollar, non-compete agreements in the gambling space, and a clause that if Barstool were to be sold again Penn Entertainment would take 50%.

Pizza reviews

One Bite Pizza Reviews is an internet show by Portnoy, in which he reviews pizza from restaurants around the world, ranking it on a scale of 0–10. Portnoy began his show with the goal of reviewing every pizza place in Manhattan in 2017. In addition to Portnoy, some reviews feature celebrity guests. Portnoy rarely ranks a pizza above 9.0, but some of those he praised have experienced a transformative growth in popularity. In October 2023, The New York Times called Portnoy "one of the most influential people in the world of food social media," with the ability to "change the fate of a pizzeria with a single utterance."

In August 2023, Portnoy was involved in an altercation with Charlie Redd, the owner of Dragon Pizza in Somerville, Massachusetts, after criticizing the pizzeria's pizza as "a floppy mess." Portnoy and Redd then entered into an expletive-laden exchange. Portnoy and Barstool Sports hosted the first One Bite Pizza Festival in September 2023 in Brooklyn, New York.

Personal life

Portnoy married his wife Renee in 2009, and they separated in 2017. From March 2021 to November 2023, Portnoy dated model Silvana Mojica. In 2019, Portnoy said his net worth was around $100 million.

Philanthropy

In 2020, Portnoy donated $500,000 to the Barstool Fund, a relief effort for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through May 2021, the campaign raised over $39 million for 348 businesses. In 2024, Portnoy donated $277,000 to the LifeLine Animal Project, an animal shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. The money was generated from t-shirt, hoodie, and hat sales on the Barstool Sports website themed after Miss Peaches, a dog Portnoy adopted from the shelter. After NYPD officer Jonathan Diller was killed on duty in March 2024, Portnoy raised more than $1.5 million for Diller's family, including $750,000 raised through a T-shirt sale on the Barstool Sports website and a $750,000 matching donation from Portnoy.

Anti-union stance

In 2019, Portnoy tweeted a threat to fire "on the spot" any employee at his blogging company who sought advice on forming a union. The New York State Department of Labor released a statement saying, "We say no way, no how to intimidation, threats and union busting. It is illegal to take any unfavorable action—including termination—against employees for union-related activities under the National Labor Relations Act. New York is a proud union state." U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted in response to Portnoy, "If you're a boss tweeting firing threats to employees trying to unionize, you are likely breaking the law & can be sued, in your words, 'on the spot.' ALL workers in the US have the protected freedom to organize for better conditions." Portnoy later agreed to an informal settlement with the National Labor Relations Board where he did not admit guilt but deleted his anti-union tweets. He also released a T-shirt with his face on it that read "Union Buster".

See also

• Barstool conservatism