How Portnoy Got to Fox

Talks between Barstool Sports’s Dave Portnoy and Fox Sports kicked off with horse racing, but soon moved to something more ambitious: a deal that would give Portnoy and his buds a new platform, bequeath the Big Ten a true-blue booster of their own, and offer Fox the kind of trouble that they could use right now.

For Portnoy, a spot on Fox’s college football pregame show is a chance to gain new viewers, of course. But it also will allow Portnoy to extend Barstool’s brand to more-mainstream platforms—and it’s a nice narrative turnaround after the highly lucrative but unsuccessful Penn acquisition, which led to a $1 spin-out when ESPN bought the gaming company. Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images

John Ourand

July 17, 2025

Dave Portnoy’s path to Fox Sports began over a year ago, in the spring of 2024. At the time, his UTA agents, Ryan Hayden, Jerry Silbowitz, and Oren Rosenbaum, reached out to various media companies to gauge their interest in a deal with Barstool.In their initial call with Fox Sports executive vice president Jordan Bazant, Hayden and Silbowitz started small: The conversation focused solely on horse racing. Portnoy loves horse racing, after all, and much of Barstool’s content focuses on gambling. Plus, over the years, Fox has amassed a bunch of horse-racing rights, including the Belmont Stakes, and a separate partnership with the New York Racing Association. Both sides were intrigued, and talks continued in the following months.