Barstool Sports and Major League Baseball could soon be partnering up.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported on Monday that the digital media company has had “significant negotiations” with MLB about broadcasting national midweek games on the site’s platforms.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy alluded to this last week, saying that they were talking with one of the “major leagues” on a potential deal but would not specify which one.
While talks have only begun recently and picked up steam, one source cautioned that it was “50-50” an agreement would be reached, according to Marchand, who also noted that an MLB-Barstool broadcast deal could come with a focus on in-game gambling.
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Neither MLB nor Barstool chose to comment to the Post.
MLB has TV deals with Fox, Turner and ESPN, the latter of which they recently agreed to a new contract which would drop non-exclusive Monday and Wednesday games, which has the league looking for a buyer for those days.
Youtube and Peacock are also seen as contenders, as Marchand noted, but Barstool is popular with a younger audience, a market MLB executives want to reach.
Barstool recently became the sponsor for college football’s Arizona Bowl, which is not expected to have a traditional broadcast.
MLB could also use Barstool as an alternative broadcast feed, where games could still be broadcast on the Regional Sports Networks in its traditional form while Barstool would use the RSN feeds to provide its broadcast.
Any deal with Barstool Sports will likely come with some pushback, though.
Portnoy and the company have had its fair share of controversies and have particularly come under heavy fire for being misogynistic and sexist, which could alienate a large portion of MLB’s fanbase if it were to strike a deal with Barstool.
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