Explaining Barstool employee salaries and contract negotiations

Barstool Sports is (almost) always making headlines for something — and arguably getting paid well for doing it.

Grace O’Malley She announced her departure from the company in December 2024 after a breakup with her old friend Brianna “Chickenfree” LaPaglia (More on that, here) And since then the tea has been spilled on him What I worked on in the brand.

“I didn’t make anything happen while I was there. I had a paycheck and that was kind of it,” O’Malley claimed during a January 2025 appearance on the radio show “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von.” “I had the option to leave, and I took it.”

O’Malley also claimed that former “PlanBri Uncut” podcast host LaPaglia was paid “a little more” than she was.

“I never got any money (podcast tour).” She claimed Barstool took her. “I didn’t care either. I was happy to be there. I was just impressed to get the job.”

She’s not the only Barstool personality who has detailed her salaries over the years:

“Employment” letter with children’s contract

During the January 2025 episode of Survive BarstoolQuestions arose about Will Compton and Taylor LewanBarstool Sports Contract. Both men, who host the podcast “Bussin’ With the Boys,” were voted off the show.

“Right now, the ‘Bussin’ With the Boys’ crew is in negotiations to get the portfolio on the next contract,” Compton said during his confessional. “You have to think, if you’re Dave and Dan, you can’t have the ‘Bussin With the Boys’ guys running wild and winning $250,000. Winning a quarter of a million dollars and then potentially throwing us a tie at the end of the year. So, my hat’s off.” Tip From the hood Dave, the big cat, the cool boys of the game.

Dan “Big Cat” Katz He confirmed Compton’s theory in his own Survive Barstool My confession.

“Dave and I didn’t want Taylor or Will to win $250,000 cash on Barstool Networks and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re leaving for a competitor,’” two seconds later.

Compton previously spoke about his contract negotiations during an April 2024 episode of the show “Next with Adam” podcast..

“Originally, (Barstool said) we’ll go 50/50, you guys get the intellectual property. We said no, but we’ll go 60/40 and the minute we cross $1 million it goes up to 70/30 (in our favor).” “They were OK with that, and then I said to myself: ‘I think we played ourselves.’”

Compton said their “second deal” with Barstool was a “competitive offer” and the podcast hosts were unable to shop their show. “I personally wanted to quit with Barstool. I think they’re the best brand for us at this time,” Compton said, noting that he and Lewan had a “beneficial” partnership with the brand.

“We ended up settling for $3 million a year,” he said. “We have the upside to that, every dollar earned after $3 million.”

Grace O’Malley revealed

Following podcast allegations of O’Malley, her former boss (and Barstool founder) Dave Portnoy I shared the numbers. He said in a January 2025 TikTok video that O’Malley’s base salary was $175,000 per year and that she received 70 percent of “anything” sold on their personal social media accounts.

“I got another $75,000 in 2024 that way,” Portnoy continued. “(Her interview) could have been chopped up, or misconstrued a little bit, but it bothers me when people make it seem like they’re not getting paid fairly. I think we’ve handled – as I said from the beginning – Grace and I have been great.

Portnoy addressed the pay gap with LaPaglia as well. He continued: “Berry was a much bigger personality.”

Portnoy explained that once Barstool recovers a character’s base salary, they “split every dollar fifty-fifty” from now on. “I don’t like it when people make it seem like we’re cheating our creators, because we’re not,” he added.

Big cat becomes a millionaire

Big Cat was involved during the April 2024 episode From “Rundown Bar Stool” He became a millionaire around 2018 or 2019.

“Listen, everyone should try this,” he joked.

KFC promotion

Kevin Clancy (known to Stoolies as KFC) was named Director of Comedy at Barstool Sports in July 2023. He announced the news On his podcast “KFC Radio”. At the time, he indicated that the career move came with a pay increase, but he did not share any details.

Clancy explained that he left his corporate job to take a full-time position at Barstool after learning that he would be paid “living enough,” which was $50,000 at the time.

“I think I started around 50, and then, whenever I got to $100,000, I think I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve made six figures doing this,'” he said. Elsewhere in the episode, Clancy said his promotion doesn’t guarantee a contract negotiation.

“I’m also the only person in the world who started a job with more responsibility without getting a new contract for it,” he joked.

Clancy could potentially make a lot more now as one of the longest-tenured figures in the company.

Lil Sasquatch doesn’t make 6 figures

“The starting salary here is much less than $100,000 a year,” Sass (real name Harry Settle) he said during the June 2023 episode From the Yak podcast.. “Still under $100,000. …Just happy to be here, man.

The comedian said at the time that it had been three years since he started working for the company.

Base salary talks

Big cat and Gerard “Jersey Jerry” Gilfon We discussed the starting salary for Barstool employees during the month of June 2023 different An episode of the series “Yak”.

“I actually don’t know what base salary is,” Big Cat said.

Jerry said that when he was brought into the company, he started with $100,000. “I think this is the middle start, though,” he added. “I think New York.”

During the same conversation, Brandon Walker He told me that his starting salary was $60,000.

“There’s less money behind the scenes, and I think some people are at an entry level, if you don’t have a following,” fellow podcast host Adam “Ron” Ferrone He explained. “I think if you have a following, you can leverage that into more than what Jerry was making.”

“Chicks in the Office” talked about contract negotiations

when Rhea Ciofo and Fran Marianowho hosts the “Chicks in the Office” podcast, appeared on Trading Secrets Podcast. In 2021, they pitched inside Barstool regarding the company’s contract negotiations.

Mariano said their second contract with Barstool (in September 2018) was a big moment for the podcast hosts.

“It only took one year for us to get a new contract worth double the amount we started with,” she said. “When we heard the number the second time, we said, ‘Oh, this works.’”

Ciuffo said their contracts were always “performance-based” by looking at the success of the “Chicks in the Office” brand as a whole. She also noted that all deals her brand gets go through Barstool’s sales department.

“I feel like we are being compensated through our salary,” Ciofo said. “I feel stable in the way I receive my salary.”

“Call her father” of all things

The year was 2020 and “Call Her Daddy” was hosted by two people – our now single parents Alex Cooper And the previous host Sophia Franklin. Regular listeners of the podcast wondered if there was drama on the show when the women appeared to speak in code. Then the truth came out.

To spare you all the details after all these years, one issue was that Cooper and Franklin had contract disputes with Barstool before their friendship fell apart.

Cooper told listeners During a May 2020 podcast episode She and Franklin signed a “three-year deal” worth $75,000 in their first year, $85,000 in year two, and $100,000 in year three. They got a raise during their first year together, and then Cooper got an additional pay raise to handle the production side of the podcast as well. (She did not share this with Franklin.)

After the success of the podcast, women began demanding more money. However, Franklin’s then-boyfriend (who eventually began buying the podcast through other networks) allegedly convinced the podcast hosts that they should ask for $1 million. Portnoy heard about the show being shopped around — which led to the infamous “rooftop meeting” between Barstool Sports founder Cooper and Franklin.

The deal they were offered was $500,000 and ownership of the show. Cooper was on board and Franklin was not – and that’s how they broke up. Cooper stayed at Barstool until June 2021 and went on to sign huge deals with Spotify and SiriusXM.