Penn and Barstool kick off live fan events with March Madness tour
The Positive Vibes Only Tour aims to drive fans into Penn National retail sportsbooks during the college basketball tournament
Barstool Sports is advertising the first of its live fan engagement events in partnership with Penn National Gaming as the operator aims to engage Barstool fans and bring them into Penn venues.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy will lead a four-stop tour of Penn National casinos during March Madness, offering fans the opportunity to watch matches with his team and rent out private gambling kiosks.
Head of Penn Interactive Jon Kaplowitz told EGR NA the tour was a great example of its omni-channel strategy with Barstool.
“Our partnership not only allows us to leverage its national brand and audience for our online initiatives, but also to utilize key Barstool talent and live events to bring a newer, younger demo to our casinos,” Kaplowitz said.
Such live events were first detailed by Kaplowitz when Penn secured its $163m stake in Barstool Sports back in January.
He said at the time: “Barstool is going to essentially focus their entire firepower on a Barstool-branded sportsbook which we operate.
“They’re going to create new and interesting content to organically and contextually activate their audience and bring them to our online and retail properties,” Kaplowitz added.
The tour includes stops at the Ameristar Casino in Chicago, Illinois, Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, The Meadows Racetrack in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, West Virginia.
In a blog post on the Barstool Sports site, Portnoy said: “We’re piling into an RV and hitting four casinos in four days, watching wall-to-wall basketball.”