Updated: Shares of Penn National Gaming fell additional than 20% Thursday, right after the publication of an article in which a number of ladies alleged that they experienced “violent and humiliating” sexual encounters with Dave Portnoy, president of Barstool Sporting activities. Penn Countrywide, which operates casinos, racetracks and on the web sporting activities betting, owns a sizeable fairness stake in Barstool.
The fall in Penn National’s stock value also arrived soon after the business skipped Q3 earnings expectations. Earnings climbed 34%, to $1.51 billion, but net profit dropped 65% to $86.1 million (52 cents for each share), properly under Wall Avenue average forecasts of EPS of 85 cents. The firm shares opened -4.6% soon after the earnings report was issued Thursday morning.
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In a nearly 4,000-term Insider tale, a few girls mentioned they experienced intercourse with Portnoy and that the encounters “turned into scary and humiliating encounters that have taken a toll on their mental overall health.” Two of the women claimed Portnoy equally choked and filmed them with no permission, for each the report.
Portnoy responded in a pair of video clips posted to Twitter, in which he denied the allegations in the Insider post. In accordance to Portnoy, he has never been criminally billed in link with any sexual encounter.
“I’ve never ever accomplished something odd with a lady, at any time, by no means anything remotely nonconsensual,” he claimed in portion, calling the Insider report a “hit piece.” He also reported, “Cancel society has been coming for me for a 10 years. This is just the future iteration.”
In a statement, a Barstool Sporting activities rep explained, “We are not in the enterprise of controlling our employees’ personalized life, but we have manufactured sure to have precise processes in area that stimulate our colleagues to confidentially share any fears they might have about their work surroundings. This latest news does not involve any workplace conduct. As a subject of plan, we do not remark on the non-public lives of our employees, but we choose this matter critically and are monitoring it carefully.”
According to the Insider write-up, a single woman texted a good friend two days immediately after obtaining sexual intercourse with Portnoy at his Nantucket home, indicating, “It was so tough I felt like I was becoming raped he movie taped me and spit in my mouth and choked me so difficult I could not breathe.” She also explained to her pal, in accordance to the Insider report, “And it hurt and I was practically screaming in pain… I retained hoping to get absent and he was like, ‘Stop working away from me. Stop jogging away from me.’” But regardless of her protests, Portnoy “just went tougher,” according to the woman, who was determined as “Madison” by Insider.
Portnoy, who phone calls himself “El Presidente,” in the past has built “rape jokes,” according to the Insider report. In July 2020, the report observed, he posted a video that offered girls tips for how to “how to slide into a celebrity’s DMs” (indicating his possess DMs): “Be quite hot. Do not be unsightly. And say this, two phrases: ‘I fuck.’”
Penn Countrywide Gaming’s inventory shut down 21.1% on Nov. 4, to $57.40 for every share. The company’s market capitalization missing about $2.6 billion in worth on Thursday’s decline. In asserting Q3 effects, Penn Countrywide blamed the earnings miss on the impression from Hurricane Ida and regional flareups of the COVID-19 delta variant.
A rep for Penn Countrywide Gaming did not react to a request for comment on the Insider report.
In January 2020, Penn Nationwide Gaming paid $163 million for a 36% stake in Barstool Sports, with prior operator the Chernin Group remaining with the similar share stake. Portnoy had sold majority manage of Barstool to Peter Chernin’s Chernin Team in 2016. In an interview last 12 months, Jon Kaplowitz, head of Penn National’s interactive division, reported “we have performed our due diligence” and that the organization is “confident” that Barstool has “the proper guardrails in position.”
Launched in 2003 as a athletics website, Barstool has diversified its company more than the final a number of many years, growing into podcasts, merchandise and wagering with Barstool Bets, its web-site for athletics betting and gambling leisure.
Barstool has a sizable fanbase with its brash brand name of athletics commentary, even though critics have targeted the web page over past sexist and racist content. In 2020, Portnoy posted a defiant online video hitting back again at “cancel cops” who resurfaced clips of him making use of racist language including the N-term in past videos, complaining that they took online video from the “comedy site” out of context. “I’m uncancellable,” he explained. ESPN in 2017 canceled “Barstool Van Speak,” a late-evening comedy/job interview show on ESPN2, soon after just a one episode aired. That arrived immediately after ESPN correspondent Sam Ponder referred to as out sexist assaults from her by Portnoy and other Barstool staffers.
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