Penn National's Barstool to open two sports bars in Philadelphia and Chicago this year

Philadelphia and Chicago are getting Barstool Sports-branded sports bars, according to Penn National Gaming, which bought a 36% stake in the digital media company last year. The bars are set to open later this year. 

Penn National Gaming’s CEO Jay Snowden announced it this week after the publication of the company’s second quarter 2021’s results. 

“We are making progress on the build out of stand-alone Barstool-branded sports bars, with the initial locations in Philadelphia and Chicago scheduled to open later this year”, Snowden told investors Thursday, as reported by Fox Business.

Details about when and where the two locations would be, or the aesthetics of the venues are not yet available. 

Penn National is also working to either open or rebrand five more Barstool Sports retail sportsbooks by the end of 2021, according to the publication of their earnings report. The company is strengthening its casino offerings by debuting more third-party content, introducing a Barstool-branded live dealer studio in New Jersey, and launching its first in-house developed Barstool-branded online table and slot games by the end of the year. 

The company also announced last week the acquisition of the Toronto-based digital media and sports betting technology company, theScore, for about $2 billion. This comes as Canada prepares for legalized single-game sports wagering to go live before 2022.

"When we add theScore’s unique integrated media and betting platform and modern, state-of-the art technology, to the massive audience of Barstool Sports and its wildly popular personalities and content, we’ll be creating North America’s leading digital sports content, gaming and technology company," Snowden said.

Penn National’s second quarter results show $1.55 billion in revenue, an increase of $1.24 billion year-over-year, and $223 million more compared to 2019.

"The strong results were driven by exceptional performance across our portfolio of core gaming business properties," Snowden said. "Contributions from Barstool Sports, the media company, were also positive. Further, we saw strong revenue growth across our Penn Interactive segment, which operated near breakeven for the quarter despite being live in only four states."