Dave Portnoy has been teasing a future run for New York City mayor in recent weeks, and on Thursday’s Business of Betting podcast, he went further than he has before.
“If I wanted to run for mayor of New York, I could have the biggest war chest probably in the history of political war chests,” he told BoB host Jeff Edelstein. “I have billionaire after billionaire willing to fund a campaign if I was going to do it. Yes, serious people. Unsolicited.”
Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder who currently holds the top spot on the New York Times non-fiction list for his memoir Cancel Me if You Can, has been critical of the current NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and has gone back and forth in recent weeks about potentially challenging the first-term mayor in 2029.
His comments on the podcast detailed for the first time the money he says would be waiting in the wings should he decide to go forward.
Polarizing Portnoy
The podcast conversation touched on numerous subjects, including the state of the gambling industry, Portnoy’s open contempt for ESPN, and what it’s been like to be one of the most visible Jews in American media at this moment of heightened political and cultural tension.
“Ever since the war has broken out in Israel, it’s like a 180. It’s like open season,” Portnoy said. “And I feel like Jews need somebody to speak out against it, and I have, and it’s created quite a bit of hate for me from anti-Semitic people.”
He also looked back on how the fall of PASPA in 2018, which cleared the way for legal sports betting expansion, has helped the company he started over two decades ago.
“It changed the trajectory of my bank account and the company,” he said. “There’s no doubt that we benefited from those laws, the legalization of sports gambling. Right place, right time, right everything. So yeah, no doubt we are a huge winner.”
