• Barstool Sports Betting App
• Barstool Sports Betting App
• Barstool Sports Betting Show
• Barstool Sports Betting Promo
• Kadaza Sports

Recommended For You

Jan 23, 2021 Barstool Sports Is Betting Big on Philly. But Are We the City They Think We Are? Crude, lewd Barstool founder Dave Portnoy thought this was the perfect city from which to launch his new sports. Official store of Barstool Sports with merchandise like t-shirts & hoodies from your favorite brands like One Bite, Pardon My Take, KFC Radio, Spittin Chiclets, Fore Play, Call Her Daddy. Official store of Barstool Sports with merchandise like t-shirts & hoodies from your favorite brands like One Bite, Pardon My Take, KFC Radio, Spittin Chiclets, Fore Play, Call Her Daddy and more.

Barstool Sports Betting App

Support the independent voice of Denver and help keep the future of Westword free.

Ameristar, a massive hotel and casino in Black Hawk, is about to make a big splash in the Colorado sports-betting pool: On November 5, the casino, which is operated by Penn National Gaming, will open the country's first retail sportsbook with the Barstool brand name.

'We know that sports betting is a younger demographic than our casino demographic. This really gives us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to new guests, new players,' says Sean Demeule, Ameristar general manager.

Penn owns 36 percent of Barstool Sports, an online sports and pop-culture company that has tens of millions of loyal followers — many of them young and male.

Related Stories

Ameristar's Barstool Sportsbook will be something of a sports bettor's paradise. Next to where fans can place bets in person, there will be seating for 196 people (75 or so in the COVID era), in front of a 24-foot digital screen and 800-inch TVs. Guests will also have access to a bar, three blackjack tables and a roulette table, all in the same space.

'You can play blackjack and watch some sports. It'll be a cool place to be. The vibe of it will be laid-back and fun,' says Kevin Dawn, Ameristar's sportsbook manager. 'Our retail space will really set aside what we’re doing.'

It will also build anticipation for the Barstool Sportsbook app that will drop in Colorado sometime in 2021. The app first went live in Pennsylvania in September; Penn is now focusing on getting it ready for Michigan, whose sports-betting market will go live soon.

Barstool Sports Betting App

Right now, FanDuel and DraftKings are the two biggest mobile sports-betting apps in the United States. 'Our CEO has said our goal is to be top three in every state that we’re in,' explains Demeule.

'I definitely think that this is going to be one of the more highly anticipated launches that Colorado has,' says Ian St. Clair, lead writer at PlayColorado.com, who has covered the Broncos since 2004. 'It’s the brand.'

Founded by Massachusetts native Dave Portnoy in 2003, Barstool Sports tapped into a market of sports fans who were eager to consume sports journalism content that sounded like a conversation they might have in a bar with another fan. In the years since, the company has exploded in size, developing massive social media followings and some of the best podcast series in the sports world, and attracting investors. Penn bought its stake in Barstool Sports earlier this year.

Among Barstool's strengths are the hilarious, opinionated and at times controversial personalities producing content.

'Barstool is very interesting, because they were more like a media conglomerate than anything, and now they’re becoming a sportsbook. It’s a unique situation that we haven’t really seen before,' says Ben Cary, a local handicapper who runs CapWize, a sports-betting advice website

Just as Barstool has fans, though, it has plenty of haters. Critics accuse it of misogyny and casual racism.

Denver resident and sports-betting fanatic Ryan Hess says he won't be using the Barstool Sportsbook app when it drops 'In a nutshell, the founder of Barstool is a giant prick, and I feel like the company capitalizes on toxic masculinity,' he explains.

'There are people who support it and will defend it, and then there are the people who are a little more put off by Barstool,' notes St. Clair. 'I think that’s why there’s so much anticipation.'

Because Barstool 'already has brand awareness,' Cary suggests that marketing and customer-acquisition costs in Colorado will be significantly lower than those of other companies. 'They’re not really doing anything that aggressive, because I don’t think they really need to at this point,' he says.

Barstool personalities have already generated plenty of hype, which will bring a new market to Ameristar. 'Especially with Colorado, you’re trying to find people who may have not done it before,' says St. Clair.

When the NFL season kicked off in September, the amount of money bet on sports in Colorado jumped from $128.6 million in August to $207.6 million the next month. That figure barely topped Indiana's total take for September, and was only behind the totals of New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Eighteen states, as well as Washington, D.C., now allow some form of legal sports betting.

'When you look at the numbers, you can see what the market is capable of,' says St. Clair.

At the same time, the state generated just under $70,000 in tax revenue in September, which was much lower than the almost $190,000 collected in August. The reduction was attributed to the wave of free and low-risk promotional bets offered by apps to gain new users as football started up; going forward, tax revenues, which come directly from casino winnings, should rise.

Colorado's sports-betting market opened in May, after the state's voters approved Proposition DD in November 2019. Under the stipulations of Prop DD, a majority of the state tax revenue generated from sports betting goes to fund the Colorado Water Plan.

And now another big company is ready to take the plunge into the market.

Keep Westword Free... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our 'I Support' membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.

Trending News

Barstool Sportsbook will be ready at the launch of Michigan online sports betting, according to the CEO of its parent company.

Jay Snowden of Penn National Gaming told Fantini Research in a video interview released Wednesday that Michigan will be the second state for the Barstool app to launch in.

“We’re going to be launching as opposed to playing catch-up in Pennsylvania, where we were a year late to the game,” Snowden said. “In Michigan, the gun goes off, we’re all at the starting line.

“I think it’s going to really be a nice proof point for us to show maybe what many other states will look like once we’ve had the appropriate time to play catch-up.

“What does Michigan look like in month two and month three? Might be a fair indication as to what it will look like across the country in the 20 states where we operate a few years down the road.”

Snowden said the best indication he has right now is Michigan’s online gambling launch will be in mid-to-late November.

Penn National acquired a 36% stake in Barstool Sports in January. The deal included an option to acquire more later, and a nationwide partnership for online gambling products.

Pennsylvania was step one for Barstool launch

Barstool Sports Betting Show

Barstool Sportsbook launched in Pennsylvania in mid-September, a successful start.

Snowden said it was a record-shattering launch and more details will be available soon on the company’s earnings call.

“We’ve got great momentum right now, but we’re in one state,” Snowden said. “So I think we’re still proving this out.”

Although Michigan is the only state on the docket for the rest of 2020, Barstool is making big 2021 plans.

Barstool Sports Betting Promo

Snowden said Barstool will be live for sports betting and online casino in over a dozen states by the end of next year.

Planned launches include:

• Colorado
• Illinois
• Indiana
• New Jersey
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Retail sportsbook coming to Detroit soon

PlayMichigan reported first last week the Barstool app could follow the launch of a Barstool Sportsbook retail facility at Greektown Casino in Detroit.

Greektown has a temporary sportsbook, but PlayMichigan learned a permanent one in the middle of the casino floor could open in late November.

The latest estimates of Michigan’s online gambling launch date range from November to early 2021. PlayMichiganreported the latest details about launch this week.

Barstool online casino will launch after sports betting

Kadaza Sports

Snowden said online casino in Michigan will launch “very soon after when the state is ready.”

Barstool has not launched online casino anywhere yet, but plans to launch it within the same app. Penn National has launched a Hollywood online casino in PA.

“That will make it very competitive,” Snowden said. “We’re really excited. We have a lot to prove.”