Dave Portnoy
Dave Portnoy, also known as El Presidente, is the founder of the preeminent digital media brand, Barstool Sports. With a nearly 20 year rich history, Dave created a brand that is extremely influential with a deeply authentic voice.
With humble beginnings as a gambling newspaper in Boston, Barstool Sports has grown to a massive media juggernaut that creates innovative content with massive distribution on multiple platforms including blog, apps, podcasts, radio, video, social, events, pay per view and TV to a fierce, loyal and incredibly engaged audience.
Dave Portnoy and his creative business mind helped build Barstool Sports ‘brick by brick’ into a disruptive company that is thriving in a time when digital media is experiencing layoffs, repositioning and have become reliant on advertisers.
Portnoy, known to most as the ‘pizza guy’ has turned eating and rating a slice of pizza into a pop culture phenomenon with his slogan ‘one bite everybody knows the rules’. His ‘One Bite’ pizza reviews and franchise have gained so much notoriety that Barstool Sports created the One Bite app, the single largest database of pizza in the US. The “One Bite Bump” has been known to spur a giant increase in sales and customers come from all over the country to try pizza deemed worthy by Dave.
Dave Portnoy is synonymous with creating a movement. Fans of Barstool continue to read, watch and listen to Barstool Sports content waiting to see what Dave will come up with next.
In 2020, Dave Portnoy and CEO of Barstool Sports, Erika Nardini, spearheaded the recent investment deal with casino operator Penn National Gaming valuing the company at $450 million.
Dave consistently ranks as the #1 most influential social media account at major US sporting events like the Kentucky Derby, Super Bowl, PGA Championship, U.S. Open Golf, Stanley Cup Finals, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and more.
