Barstool Sports, a digital media company and sportsbook operator, has been significantly broadening its visibility in recent years. This week, the company revealed a new initiative aimed at boosting its recognition – a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Arizona Bowl in college football, making it the game’s title sponsor.
From this year onwards, the newly renamed Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl will be exclusively broadcasted on the company’s digital and social media platforms.
Barstool and Arizona Bowl both have a strong passion for their ally.
The Arizona Bowl made its first appearance in 2015, adding to the plethora of college basketball bowl games. It has previously been partnered with NOVA Home Loans and the real estate firm, Offerpad. For the last forty years, the game has been televised by CBS.
The Arizona Bowl engaged Impression Sports, a research company, to solicit bids and secure a new business partner. This resulted in their alliance with Barstool.
The second Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl will take place at Arizona Stadium on December 31, 2021. Like previous years, the game’s participants will be hosted by the Mountain West and Mid-American conferences.
The announcement was made on Tuesday during a press conference at the University of Arizona college in Tucson. A symbolic signing of a barstool marked the completion of the deal between the two parties at the event. Kym Adair, the executive director of the Arizona Bowl, expressed enthusiasm about the new collaboration.
Tucson.com reported that Adair emphasized the way the alliance links the grand traditions of football with Barstool’s unrivaled power in creative content and streaming services.
Dave Portnoy, the head of Barstool Sports, was present and spoke about his enduring vision and sponsorship of a college plate game. He asserted that they had been looking for the right partner and the right city. He reiterated how the company wants to be seen in Tucson. He announced that they would make this an experience and expressed great excitement.
The broadcast of the Arizona Bowl by Barstool was never planned.
In a conversation with Sportico, Erika Nardini, the Director of Barstool, expressed the company’s aim to infuse a fresh level of energy into the bowl game coverage. She detailed their plan of covering it in a unique style that is specific to Barstool.
Nardini also revealed that Barstool initially had no plans to broadcast the game. However, as part of the sponsorship negotiations, the company eventually assumed responsibility for the game’s broadcast.
Nardini made it clear that our title sponsorship would influence the broadcasting location of the Arizona Bowl. As a result of this circumstance, Barstool chose to broadcast the game online via its platforms.
Nardini was certainly referring to the short-lived partnership between Barstool Sports and ESPN in late 2017. This collaboration between the two organizations ended in under two weeks. The ESPN2 show Barstool Van Talk aired for just one episode before ESPN cut ties with Barstool.
EPPN President John Skipper has expressed concerns about the reasons behind the partnership’s abrupt termination, including fears that the network might not be able to separate itself from the content on the Barstool page. The Barstool website, plans, and social media accounts primarily target a young, majority adult audience. On many occasions, Barstool has stirred up controversy with content perceived as offensive to women and minorities.
Adair from the Arizona Bowl, spotlighted the swift growth and vast popularity of the business in her remarks, noting that their social media accounts have amassed 38.4 million followers. According to the bowl committee, 70% of users and transactions on Barstool’s app are from individuals under the age of 30.
Adair described them as the leading online business in the attention economy and the quickest expanding company on the internet. She characterized Barstool as a platform where millennial and generation Z audiences could discover content.
New partners leave Barstool’s sports betting ties unaddressed.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party. Furthermore, during the press conference, there was no mention of Barstool Sports’ increased involvement in sports betting. Early in 2020, Barstool collaborated with Penn National Gaming and together they launched the online version of their Sportsbook sportsbook later on.
Arizona, which legalized sports betting earlier this year, aims to introduce the state's initial sportsbooks by the 2021 football season. Phoenix Raceway and Penn National Gaming form one of the numerous partnerships already established between sports betting operators and prospective license holders in the state.
Following the agreement, Barstool Sports is set to become the exclusive betting platform for the NASCAR track. This deal is expected to introduce the Barstool Sportsbook online software to Arizona, subject to regulatory approval.
As previously stated, officials from the Arizona Bowl have not commented on the sports betting relationship with its new partner, Andrsquo. Meanwhile, according to a Sportico article, Barstool CEO, Nardini, is unconcerned about her company’s gambling affiliations as it ventures into college athletics.
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