Barstool Sports Teaming Up With E-Gamer NickMercs - Marketing Will Never Be The Same

For those of you that only know Barstool Sports for the controversy, it's time to wake up and understand the Barstool model is here to stay. What exactly is that model? Barstool is a full blown media powerhouse, with the ability to convert everyday employees to talent, and an "owned audience" that is sticky and loyal to the brand.

When founder Dave Portnoy experienced issues, he had no problem leveraging his fanbase for support. This brand loyalty has gotten them through difficult times, utilizing parties, meet and greets and merchandise drops as a way to fund several endeavors. Portnoy has also used his influence for personal gripes. He's encouraged fans to go after cheating girlfriends, business rivals and media outlets critical of Barstool. Barstool fans, or "stoolies" as they are known, are more than willing to do their part, feeling a connection to the community.

Portnoy has understood the power of what he's built for a long time. He even met with Mark Cuban back around 2013 to discuss funding. Cuban was impressed with what they built, but didn't think it was scalable or could be monetized. He was dead wrong.

A solo media founder like Dave Portnoy, Joe Rogan or NickMercs can make as much money as a strong tech founder, with significantly less managerial stress. Tech created this ecosystem but tech has always looked at media as unprofitable. That changed a long time ago.

Barstool sold for $163million to Penn Gaming, who is utilizing Barstool and their personalities to market their betting app. The Penn Gaming betting app is now the most profitable legal book in Pennsylvania. The Penn stock price has shot up from $24/share to $106/share at the time of this writing. This is not by accident.

Venture Capitalists and Angels invest in the potential of individual founders, as much as they invest in their companies. This money will soon to be going to media founders, because media can scale as quickly as a great tech app. But not necessarily big companies. Just solo individuals, like NickMercs, or small groups doing content, think Dude Perfect.

NickMercs is a former e-sports pro and currently the most popular streamer on Twitch, with over 65,000 monthly subscribers. Each subscriber pays $5/month, with roughly $3.50-$4 going to Nick. He also has brand deals with gaming equipment, energy drinks, CashApp, NFL and now Barstool. Plus the income he gets by repurposing his content to YouTube. It's very likely that he earned well over $4million in 2020.

Barstool understands how they scaled, largely by fan engagement and creating talent from within. They understand the power of an online community and they see NickMercs as a natural continuation of that model. But they're not the only ones. The cosmetic industry is leading the social influencer to media founder charge. Kylie Jenner is the first made billionaire through her cosmetic line, but she certainly won't be the last.

Advertisers understand how little of a return they get on marketing dollars sent to traditional media like TV and Radio. Besides live sports, most commercials are ignored or bypassed. In addition, it's difficult to track and analyze who is watching these ads. Entities like Barstool Sports, NickMercs, or any YouTuber have a deep understanding of their audience and what resonates. Plugging into those audiences will make it much easier for brands to get to their target markets.

The media landscape is already making this shift to individual personalities, its only a matter of time before the dollars follow.