Dana White warns Barstool could be damaged by ‘f****** corporate guys who don’t know jack s***’
Dana White warns Barstool Sports could be harmed by ‘f***ing corporate guys who don’t know jack s***’ after Penn Entertainment bought $551 million company from Dave Portnoy
- Barstool Sports was sold in its entirety to Penn Entertainment in 2023 for $551 million
- Portnoy was criticized after a Barstool employee was fired last month
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
UFC chief Dana White has predicted that Barstool Sports will lose its authenticity in the wake of Penn Entertainment’s purchase of the company.
Barstool, started by Dave Portnoy, was acquired by the gaming conglomerate earlier this year and has already displayed a more corporate image than that of the wildly successful Portnoy-operated Barstool.
“Once you start bringing suits into your business and these f****** corporate guys who think they know what they f****** do… and most of them don’t know jack s* * *,” White told The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.
“You will also see it with Barstool in the years to come. They came in and they bought it out, they bought out Portnoy.’
Penn completed a full purchase of Barstool in February, spending a total of $551 million on the popular sports and cultural content machine.
Dana White (L) believes Barstool could lose its authenticity after Dave Portnoy was bought out
Portnoy will remain part of the Barstool brand, but revealed further The Kirk Minihane Show his contract expires in 20 months.
“Who knows where I’ll be in 3-4 years,” Portnoy said. ‘There’s been some talk about it [a new deal]. Like you said, who knows what they’re thinking right now.’
White was questioned about rumors of a feud with Barstool at a Power Slap press conference Wednesday.
“No, that’s not true,” he replied. “Listen, what I said today about Pat McAfee wasn’t about Barstool Sports, it was about Penn Gaming.
Portnoy clashed with Penn executives over several issues, including Ben Mintz’s firing in May
The 46-year-old does not know what to expect when he says goodbye to Barstool Sports
“What I mean really is that when you build a company like Barstool Sports, the way it was built with a guy like Dave Portnoy, once you get a bunch of suits involved… that just changes the dynamic of the whole thing. Ask Vice how that went.’
Earlier this month, the founder of Barstool claimed he was doing everything he could to keep former employee, Ben Mintz.
The fan favorite was fired for reading aloud rap lyrics, including the N-word in a live stream.
At the time, Portnoy expressed concern about Mintz’s firing as a “death knell” for the company after Penn’s stock price subsequently fell due to backlash.