Sports
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy announces he ‘beat’ cancer
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy recently “beat” cancer, he revealed this week.
On the most recent episode of the “BFFs” podcast, co-host Brianna LaPaglia inquired about the scar on Portnoy’s neck.
“Do you have a scratch on your neck? Like a cut?” LaPaglia asked.
The 47-year-old replied: “Yeah, cancer. I beat it, though.”
Portnoy quickly shifted the topic of conversation and made it clear he didn’t want to discuss it any further.
On Wednesday, Portnoy provided more information via a social media post.
“I did have cancer. I beat it,” Portnoy wrote, sharing a video in which he discussed with other Barstool personalities. “It wasn’t the serious kind thank god.”
Portnoy founded Barstool as a tabloid-esque sports pamphlet in Boston in 2004. The content eventually moved online during the blog-boom of the 2000s, and Portnoy’s company evolved into a major sports media player two decades later thanks to podcasting, the rise of legalized sports gambling, social media and video content.
The Chernin Group purchased Barstool in 2016 and sold it to PENN Entertainment at a valuation north of $400 million in 2020. Six months after PENN completed their purchase of Barstool in 2023, Portnoy bought the company back from PENN for $1.