Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini predicts the company will top $200 million in revenue by early 2022.
Barstool’s revenue grew 57% to $150 million in 2020. If the company surpasses $200 million by the end of 2021, that would be a roughly 33% increase. That’s double the $100 million in annual revenue it had generated back when Penn National acquired a 36% stake in Barstool for $163 million in cash and stock in January 2020.
The media brand is being embraced by giants like Walmart. Advertisers are drawn to Barstool’s young audience (half under 30 years old) and 135 million social media followers.
“The world is opening up for us,” CEO Erika Nardini told Front Office Sports.
Among Barstool’s new initiatives:
- Barstool Bites: Barstool will launch its own Barstool Bites menu of “couch food” in October. Customers can have chicken wings, sandwiches, and chips delivered at home.
- One Bite: Founder Dave Portnoy’s new frozen pizza will hit 3,600 Walmart stores at the end of September.
- Branded sports bars: The company’s planning its first standalone bars in Chicago and Philadelphia this fall.
- New tourney: The brand will launch the “Barstool Hockey Cup,” a weeklong women’s hockey tournament, in April.
Barstool also wants to own and operate more live events.
“There isn’t a category that we haven’t disrupted,” Nardini said.
