Dave Portnoy

About

David Scott Portnoy (born March 22, 1977) is an American businessman and social media personality. He is the founder and owner of sports and popular culture company Barstool Sports.

David Scott Portnoy was born on March 22, 1977 in Salem, Massachusetts, and raised in nearby Swampscott, the son of Michael, a lawyer, and Linda, a high school teacher. He is Jewish. He attended Swampscott High School, where he played on the school’s baseball team, winning the league batting triple crown as a junior. One of his friends and classmates was ESPN’s Todd McShay, who was born in the same hospital on the same day as Portnoy.
Portnoy graduated from the University of Michigan in 1999 with a degree in education, though he had no plans to become a teacher. While at Michigan, Portnoy founded thegamblingman.com, a website where he published his sports betting picks.

After college, Portnoy moved to Boston and began working at Yankee Group, an IT market research firm. Portnoy, a self-described “degenerate gambler,” bet heavily on sports, losing $30,000 one year of his mid-twenties. In 2004, Portnoy left the Yankee Group and founded Barstool…