Will Compton Explains ‘Bittersweet’ Decision to Leave Barstool for FanDuel

Will Compton acknowledges that it was “bittersweet” to leave Barstool Sports for FanDuel.

Compton co-hosts the popular Bussin’ With the Boys podcast with Taylor Lewan, and the duo made the leap for a big-money deal earlier this year. Compton joined FOS Today earlier this week and was asked if he had any concerns about making the switch. 

“Absolutely. You know, you always fear the unknown,” Compton said. “You fear turning the page and starting a new chapter. And we absolutely loved our partnership with Barstool. They have so many great minds over in that company. We got to work with a lot of great people. And it was one of those things that was very bittersweet because again, we owe a lot of gratitude for them helping us launch our podcast, give us kind of a platform to have distribution, have some infrastructure help.”

“And it kind of got to the position where FanDuel comes in and we’re not just something where we’re focusing on a solo podcast anymore,” Compton continued. “We would love to expand the brand, whether that’s bringing in other shows, bringing in other talent. I know we’ve recently signed Clay Matthews to kind of be a mainstay on The Locker Room this season. We’re working through everything to get Delanie Walker official. We’re looking at a lot of different things to kind of expand our brand. And FanDuel was a partner that we had a lot of conversations with them, similar to Barstool, we want to pour gasoline on your fire. We want you guys to be able to operate how you guys want to operate.”

Earlier this year, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy told Shannon Sharpe that FanDuel paid $30 million over three years to poach Bussin’.  

Compton played linebacker for the Redskins, Titans, and Raiders in a career that spanned from 2013-2021. In his FOS Today appearance, he further discussed the reasons for the move to FanDuel. 

“We have more independence going solo,” Compton said. “We get to think about it more as growing the brand, growing the business versus just pouring into a singular podcast. And FanDuel just really gave us that access, the opportunities. It’s like, you know, being at the draft, being at all these different events that we will now have access to where we want to go through a different amount of hurdles. And I’m not saying those hurdles were there with Barstool because I have nothing but good things to say about Barstool. But again, it was one of those bittersweet things to where we were just ready to kind of spread our wings and bet on ourselves in kind of like a different area inside of the industry.”