Barstool Sports was once just a simple newspaper company that offered sports stories and gambling tips. It has grown exponentially throughout the years growing to the media mogul it is today. Everywhere you look you can see examples of Barstool’s influence; they produce a huge amount of the sports related content we can see on Twitter and Instagram. This company has been counted out by investors for years because they did not believe in them or share their vision for the future. As of Tuesday, Barstool Sports was bought by Penn National Gaming and valued for a whopping 450 million dollars. As Barstool founder Dave Portnoy would say “They have unlimited money”. Barstool has taken the leap from just using twitter and Instagram to being one of the largest podcast producer in the world. Popular podcasts like Pardon My Take and KFC radio have aided their growth. This is a nation-wide known brand and the legalization of sports gambling is the main reasons for their partnership with Penn National Gaming. Gambling was at the start of the company and it is going to be the reason for its future growth. Barstool themed casinos are already in the works. These will just continue to grow the already massive brand.

Forbes wrote an article about the sale detailing the companies previous problems they’ve been faced with. During the “Deflate Gate” scandal with the New England Patriots, Dave Portnoy and other employees staged a protest outside of the NFL’s headquarters. They all got arrested tarnishing the name of Barstool sports. The NFL has banned them from ever being able to go to the Super Bowl and they’ve been kicked out or arrested every year since then trying to sneak in. While some may say this would have hurt the brand, I believe it only made them stronger. It gave them a ton of publicity, and put their company in the media’s eye.

Since Penn National Gaming’s purchase of Barstool Sports, their stock price has shot up. Their original investment was 163 million dollars for 36% ownership of Barstool Sports. After the purchase stocks rose 14.1% almost overnight. According to CNBC, billionaire investor Ron Baron talks about how how great this deal will be with Penn National Gaming. Pairing a media giant like Barstool, with casino company is a recipe to print money. Barstool has a “cult-like” following and its followers will follow anything Barstool sponsors. Barstool has the ability to reach millions on multiple different platforms. They have multiple accounts with millions of followers on multiple platforms. They have the abilty to advertise for Penn National Gaming on a national scale. This is a big win for legalized gambling. Since it is not legalized nationwide, law makers seeing a deal of this magnitude will quickly change their minds when they can see the tax revenue it can bring in.

While this evaluation can comprehensible, some suggest this is even a bargain for the media giant. Sports Illustrated is one of these companies. They talked to gaming industry consultant Sara Slane. She talks about how Draft Kings and Fan Duel spent over 206M on advertisements in 2015 alone. Due to the magnitude of Barstool Sports, Penn now has access to over 66 million monthly users. It is also estimated to have over 50% of their user base who are active gamblers. Penn now has the ability to reach all of Barstools followers to advertise for their many casinos. This will also allow Penn to stand out in the vast amount of casinos opening. Barstool’s followers will naturally go to the casinos that Barstool promotes. Penn essentially payed to have a new huge following and will make back their investment in no time. Currently Penn has over 41 casinos in 19 different states. That being said, they are not very well known and lack a national brand name. Pairing them with Barstool’s media reach will give them that brand.

The Motley Fool goes on to talk about how much impact Barstool will have on Penn National Gaming. They talk about how Barstool is “By the Common Man for the Common Man”. Barstool is unlike any other media company. They don’t hold back in their content and are often seen as “crude and controversial”. This is actually a good thing for Penn and Barstool. People are getting tired of the controlled PC content that is being released on most media platforms. Writers and bloggers cannot be themselves due to the multiple limitations their respective companies put on them. Barstool does not have these limitations. Their writers and bloggers can be themselves, and release the content they want. This is what makes their followers love their content so much. They can see the genuineness behind it and typically flock to that kind of content. Pairing this genuineness with a huge company like Penn National will be very beneficial to the future of sports gambling and the future of Penn National Gaming.

To get a sense of the formatting of sports writers on Medium, I started and focused on the writer Andrew Martin. Andrew typically writes in the sports field and focuses on writing about baseball content. In order to get a grasp of his writing styles and sports writing on Medium, I chose four of Andrew’s articles. The first article being “Who should be in the 2020 NBA Western Conference All-Star Team”. I wanted to read his sports articles to be able to get a different opinion on sports topics than my own. In this first article, Martin goes through all of the top players in the Western conference. He then makes an effort to back up his claims about the players using stats and videos. You are able to get a sense of his voice through his articles. This is something thats important to me when consuming sports media. It is important to get the facts and stats but also be able see the writer as an actual person and not just a stat book. https://medium.com/sportsraid/who-should-be-on-the-2020-nba-western-conference-all-star-team-a5db62ef3ca0

The next article I read of Andrew’s was “The NFL’s Top 2020 Free Agent QB’s”. In this article he goes through all the NFL quarterbacks that will become free agents in the off season. He includes write ups and videos on each player. The way he introduces us to this information is very informative and he does in a way that very easy to read and interpret. I appreciated his voice being inserted in the article. You can tell he is highly educated about sports and is very passionate about sports. https://medium.com/top-level-sports/the-nfls-top-2020-free-agent-quarterbacks-18bf4d1b520

The next article I read was “MLB Misses the Mark by Absolving Players in Cheating Scandal”. In this article he goes into the huge sign stealing scandal that the Houston Astros. Martin talks in this article about how the players should have been punished more in the sign stealing scandal. The only people who were indited in the scandal were the front office of the Astros. The MLB gave all players who talked about the scandal immunity. This is the main reason why none of the players got in trouble or punished for their involvement in the scandal. Martin argues that the players should have been punished much more because they were primarily responsible for the cheating scandal. Overall, he had a great take about the scandal and made a great argument for why the players should have been indited. https://medium.com/sportsraid/mlb-misses-the-mark-by-absolving-players-in-cheating-scandal-9c7d4fab049

The final article I read of Andrews was “The 2019 NFL All-Underrated Team”. This was an article where he gives his opinion of why each player was underrated. This was yet another article where he offers his unique voice and perspective about a topic. I appreciated his voice and plan on continuing to read his sports content. https://medium.com/top-level-sports/the-2019-nfl-all-underrated-team-defense-14d21b7197f2

On January 20th, we celebrate the life and ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Christopher Newport cancelled classes from 3PM-6PM and had many celebrations and informative events highlighting King’s life and accomplishments. I decided to take part in the opening address of the day on the steps of CNU Hall. To kick off the series of events surrounding Dr. Kings life, we were given an address from the University President, Paul Trible. In this address he stressed the importance behind holding classes on MLK day. He stresses that MLK day is not a day of rest and relation but instead should be used to work hard toward our goals. We were then treated to a song from a local church choir and a moment of silence for Dr. King. These opening statements were attended to by many and were a great way to kick off the series of events for the day.

To conclude the opening remarks, the entire audience banded together to march in unity across campus to the Ferguson Center. There, many events had been planned for the day. Some of these events being the entirety of the “I have a Dream” speech being played for the students. I believe this three hour block was something that was very beneficial and important for CNU to do. Students should be informed about the life of Dr. King, and we must celebrate his accomplishments and how they’ve shaped today.