Dave Portnoy Net Worth: How the Barstool Presidente Made $150M
Don’t misconstrue anything below to be investment advice or anything like that. It’s just some of my research on one of the more popular Internet celebrity entrepreneurs.
Dave Portnoy, the celebrity founder of Barstool Sports, has led a rollercoaster of a life with extraordinary highs and crushing lows. Mostly thanks to his work founding and building Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy’s net worth is estimated at about $150 million.
While he made most of his money founding a business, Portnoy isn’t your everyday entrepreneur. In between his duties at Barstool, he is an avid crypto and stock trader with years of trading millions of dollars under his belt. Over the years, Portnoy has become a controversial figure, both for his political stances and his meme coin trading.
In this article, we will explore Dave Portnoy’s net worth in depth, tracing his journey from the Barstool empire to the world of meme coin pump-and-dumps.
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Breaking Down Dave Portnoy’s Net Worth in 2025
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, also known as “El Presidente,” has an estimated total worth of around $150 million as of 2025, and most of his wealth stems from his ownership of Barstool. Portnoy’s asset value increased dramatically after his buyback deal with Penn, where he acquired 100% shares of Barstool.
Portnoy also has massive investments in real estate and cryptocurrencies, contributing tens of millions of dollars to his net worth. While it’s difficult to pinpoint his exact net worth due to fluctuating asset values, various reports reveal that Dave’s real estate holdings are valued at approximately $69 million as of 2025.
Portnoy’s brand presence also contributes to his wealth. He has a massive following, positioning him as a popular stock market trader and cryptocurrency influencer. From brand deals, monetization, and merchandise, Portnoy generates significant revenue. However, none of these deals are public, so no one knows how much he has made from them.
Here’s an overview of the main income sources and assets that contribute to Dave Portnoy’s net worth in 2025.
Asset or Income Source - Contribution to Net Worth
Barstool Sports100% stake - worth $90-100 million
Real estate portfolio - $69+ million
Stock portfolio - $10-15 million
Other ventures - $5-10 million
Crypto holdings & profits - $10-15 million
Total Net Worth - $150+ million
How Dave Portnoy Founded Barstool Sports
David was born in Massachusetts in 1977, and he attended the University of Michigan to earn a bachelor’s degree in education. Portnoy has long been interested in gambling and sports, likely influenced by his father. After graduating, he decided to pursue sports and betting ventures and started thegamblingman.com.
Later, Portnoy moved to Boston and worked at an IT market research firm, Yankee Group. Four years later, he left Yankee and founded Barstool Sports in 2003. Back then, it was a four-page newspaper distributed on street corners and at subway stations, sharing news about sports betting and fantasy sports.
At that time, Portnoy was the only writer in the publication. Eventually, more freelance writers joined the team. In 2007, he transformed Barstool Sports into an online platform, anticipating a future boom of digital media. With this one decision, the brand gained recognition among a wide range of audiences with its unfiltered commentary on sports and pop culture.
Dave gained notoriety for establishing a “bro culture” empire through his Barstool platform. South China Morning Post called Dave Portnoy the ”controversial bro culture don” who gained popularity among a certain young population influenced by rude, crude, and sexist content. Dave Portnoy created the “El Presidente” persona and became the distinct face and voice of the brand.
During Barstool’s early years, Dave’s wife, Renee Portnoy, provided crucial financial and emotional support. She helped him build the platform that would soon grow into a media empire. They are separated, but still legally married.
Despite the controversies, Barstool stood out from the crowd with its unfiltered voice. While standard sports publications opt for a professional tone, Barstool has adopted an authentic and raw commentary style, targeting young male sports fans.
Building the Barstool Business Empire
Barstool grew slowly at first, but, after going digital and expanding to other topics outside of sports betting, it started to explode in popularity. The brand grew with podcasts, sports takes, gambling content, merchandise, branded alcohol products, and even television shows.
Brilliantly, it contracted students at various universities all over the U.S. to create localized Barstool social media accounts, posting videos and images submitted by students. These accounts were massive hits at many of the largest universities in the country and it helped build the brand exponentially.
Portnoy also started to make simple pizza reviews, traveling all over the country to hundreds of restaurants to taste and rate their pizzas. This eventually helped him grow his personal brand and build Barstool’s loyal fanbase and he still makes these reviews to this day.
Barstool Sold to The Chernin Group
In 2016, The Chernin Group, a private equity investment advisory firm, invested in Barstool and acquired a majority stake in the company. This investment allowed Barstool to expand its media presence while maintaining Portnoy as the brand’s face. The company continued to grow over the next few years and eventually caught the attention of other massive companies like Penn National Gaming.
How Portnoy Acquired Barstool Sports Again
In 2020, Penn National Gaming, a well-known name in the gaming industry, acquired a 36% stake in Barstool for $163 million. The Penn National deal gave Dave Portnoy access to the sports betting audience as a key player.
Roughly three years after Penn acquired the 36% stake, it purchased the remaining 64% for $388 million. This increased the company’s value to $550 million, increasing Dave Portnoy’s net worth dramatically. The idea was to help bring in engaged, young bettors to its gambling app Barstool Sportsbook. However, Penn’s plans with Barstool didn’t turn out as expected.
In August 2023, Penn sold Barstool to Portnoy for $1, allegedly due to his controversial image. Penn later reported that they wished to focus their major ESPN deal on rebranding their online sports-betting business. Portnoy revealed that the company was denied licenses because of him, and the regulated industry might not be the best fit for Barstool.
While this seems like a ludicrously good deal, the agreement included a clause that gives Penn 50% of the proceeds if Portnoy ever sells the company again. Portnoy still made a killing from this deal, but it’s not as good a deal as it may have seemed. This dramatic saga set the tone for Portnoy’s next big bet, crypto trading.
In all of this, despite the eventual separation, Portnoy’s wife Renee maintains a unique financial relationship with him. She still retains full access to his financial accounts. This access granted to Renee is a testament to her significant contributions and partnership during Barstool’s rise. Renee’s continued involvement in his finances reflects the deep trust Dave has in her, recognizing her support through their journey.
Blazing a Path in Crypto Trading
Portnoy entered the crypto market in August 2020, around the time when the industry was experiencing massive growth. The Winklevoss twins, founders of Gemini and early Bitcoin investors, pitched crypto to Portnoy, showcasing Bitcoin‘s immense potential in finance.
Impressed by their pitch, Portnoy bought $250,000 worth of Bitcoin and Chainlink (LINK). However, due to the volatility of crypto’s prices, he noticed some losses and panicked, selling soon after. He also declared that he was “out” of crypto for good.
Later, Portnoy re-entered the market multiple times, investing in memecoins and other cryptos. Portnoy announced his support for Bitcoin’s legitimacy as a store of value and claimed to hold millions in Bitcoin and XRP.
He reportedly earned $10,000 to $75,000 in February 2025, when the Solana-based memecoin $MONTOYA experienced a surge in prices. Portnoy made similar profits when he bought Josh Allen-themed MVP coins for $30,000. Within a few hours of his announcement of buying MVP coins, the coin’s price skyrocketed.
The publication Bitget accused Dave of profiting from followers using pump-and-dump schemes. He was accused of intentionally spiking coin prices with his social media influence and then selling coins when prices rose, leaving his fans in the dust.
Portnoy also gained public attention for revealing his Solana wallet, showing the world his successful trading of meme coins. He claimed he simply wanted to promote transparency, but also received warnings about security risks because his public wallet address posed a potential security threat.
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Dave Portnoy Launches GREED and GREED2
Portnoy launched his own token, GREED, on Pump.fun, and just hours after the launch, allegedly sold most or all of his $GREED tokens, leading to a 99% price drop. He reportedly profited about $258,000 by selling all his GREED tokens while nearly every other investor lost their entire positions. He immediately faced backlash and was accused of dumping and capitalizing on his brand and following.
The controversy was further fueled when Portnoy launched $GREED2 tokens immediately after the $GREED token crash. While critics were calling his projects pump-and-dump schemes, he was making sarcastic comments like Memecoins are ‘legalized Ponzi schemes,’ in an interview with CoinDesk.
On a “Davey Day Trader Global” livestream, he received requests for a “GREED3” token, but he refused to launch one. Portnoy explained, “There’s too many babies for me to launch GREED3… all I get is headaches.” Despite all of his controversies, he is still a remarkably popular figure with millions of listeners and followers.
Real Estate Portfolio
Dave Portnoy is also a real estate investor with over $69 million in various properties. He broke a Massachusetts state record by purchasing a $42 million property in Nantucket in 2023. He also purchased two adjacent homes on a 1.2-acre plot with waterfront access, featuring an underground tunnel that connects the guesthouse to a separate studio.
In 2021, he purchased a $14 million waterfront mansion in Miami. Even as a Massachusetts native, he lists the Miami home his primary residence, potentially to save money in taxes. This is because Massachusetts has a 5% state income tax, whereas Florida has no state income tax.
Portnoy also owns a 5,700-square-foot vacation getaway in the Hamptons, which he bought for $9.8 million in 2021. He’s shown considerable interest in real estate, which also contributes significantly to his net assets beyond Barstool.
Other Investments and Ventures
Beyond Barstool, crypto, and real estate, Portnoy’s other investments and ventures include income generated from his trading-focused video content, sponsorship deals, and brand partnerships with major firms like Fox Sports. It’s incredibly difficult to estimate the proceeds of these deals because the details haven’t been made public.
In 2021, Portnoy, former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, and ecommerce tycoon Mark Lore invested in an online brokerage, Tornado. In 2020, Dave also donated $500,000 to the Barstool Fund to help small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dave Portnoy Net Worth: What Can We Learn?
There are plenty of lessons to be learned in Dave Portnoy’s story. He has proven the remarkable potential of innovative media companies and blazed the path for countless other influencers and podcasters. He also demonstrated that meme coin and stock trading can be extremely profitable if executed well. However, Portnoy’s endless controversies also impart important lessons.
Portnoy has been heavily criticized for allegedly promoting his crypto holdings on social media before dumping them on the open market. If the reports are true, many of his fans likely lost a large amount of money betting on his calls, and the legality of his strategies is dubious at best.
These controversies show how important it is for influencers, podcasters, and celebrities to tread extremely carefully when it comes to promoting investments of any kind. One wrong move and you could lose your fans hundreds or thousands of dollars. When building wealth through content, it’s essential to offer as much transparency as possible.
John Boitnott is a journalist and digital consultant who has worked at media companies for 25 years and has advised startups since 2007. He writes about emerging companies, marketing and leadership at Entrepreneur, InsideBitcoins, Jotform.com, and his blog.
This story originally appeared on InsideBitcoins.com