👉 Background: Barstool Sports was launched in 2003 and has grown into a powerhouse media brand that discusses things that are sport... adjacent. Not quite ESPN, not quite Daily Mail. But somewhere in between. Barstool has an audience of 66+ million monthly unique users with nearly half of them in the 18-34 age demographic.

👉 What happened: There is a series of events that led to Barstool's crazy acquisition... and re-acqusition story.

• In 2019, major US gaming company Penn Entertainment acquired a 36% stake in Barstool for $163 million USD.
• Earlier this year, Penn acquired the remainder of Barstool for $388 million USD - totalling $551 million USD to acquire the company.
• Now, Penn has sold the company back to the founder for just $1.  

👉 What else: Penn's relationship with Barstool supposedly caused 'regulatory concern' when Penn applied for sports betting licenses. So now, Penn has bet against Barstool and signed a new, whopping $1.5 billion deal to license the ESPN name and rename their betting business ESPN Bet.

What's the key learning?

💡In the evolving landscape of sports betting, partnerships are becoming a key strategy for success.

💡With Barstool actually holding Penn back from licenses in new states, they've managed to cut ties with Barstool for $1... And snag the big fish - ESPN, which reached 73 million households in the US in 2023.

💡Penn Entertainment isn't the only betting company to partner with big media brands:

• Think: NBCUniversal and PointsBet
• Think: Warner Media and DraftKings
• Think: CBS Sports and William Hill
• And ironically, Fox, who decided to go into betting without a betting partner, has shut down already.

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