Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan Resigns: ‘I Gave You My All’

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After more than seven years at the helm of Barstool Sports — and in the wake of the company’s ill-fated sale in 2023 — Erika Ayers Badan announced Tuesday that she is stepping down as CEO.

Last summer, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy bought the site back from casino and online gambling operator Penn Entertainment for $1.

That came after Penn Entertainment paid a total of about $550 million to acquire 100% control of Barstool, a few months before deciding to part ways with Barstool. “The last two years was all Penn all the time,” Ayers Badan wrote in a farewell message to Barstool staffers. “It was a balancing act and kind of an exercise in futility — trying to generate bets at the same time as protecting a pirate ship while also subtly contorting it to be something more predictable, pacifiable and projectable to match with a casino company.

In the last year we sold the company twice. First to Penn for $550M and then to Dave for $1. It seems insane and it was.” Now New York-based Barstool Sports “is back as it should be,” Ayers Badan wrote. “A pirate ship with Dave at the helm… I did what I came here to do and more than I could have ever imagined and now it’s your turn to take it forward.” Ayers Badan added, “My time at Barstool will forever inspire me.