In mid-February, PENN Entertainment announced it finished the acquisition of Barstool Sports, Inc. after previously acquiring a 36% stake in the company three years ago. The remaining interest in the media brand specialized in sports, entertainment, and lifestyle was acquired for around $388 million.
Now, Barstool Sports has announced it leased a new office space in Chicago, this way marking its second launch in the third-largest city in the US.
While other corporations are leaving the city scared by the high crime rate, the company founded in the suburban parts of Boston decided to go forward and open a second office measuring 400,000 square feet.
The New Location to Host a Full-Size Basketball Court & a Golf Simulator
Located west of the Chicago Loop at 400 N. Noble St. nearby Fulton Market, the industrial building purchased by Jeff Shapack and Alec Litowitz will host a full-size basketball court along with a golf simulator, several music studios, and additional spaces that will be used for media creation of media content.
The new location will also be near a plethora of office and large apartment building projects that are currently under construction.
Barstool Sports’ spokesperson Debra Duffy announced that the company’s employees will swap their New York offices with the brand new Chicago office.
While these amenities are usually found with most offices belonging to gaming companies, they have gradually started to be eliminated across a number of different other industries in the context of certain corporations trying to cut their expenses to get ready for a potential upcoming recession.
Rampant Crime in Chicago Scaring Off Big Players
As mentioned earlier, the decision to open a second office also came in the context of big corporations fleeing the city because of the rampant crime rates.
The list includes prestigious names like Boeing, Tyson Foods, and Caterpillar. They all decided to relocate to different states or different parts of Illinois because of the growing crime, even though Boeing did not specifically use the city’s crime as a primary argument for the decision to relocate to Northern Virginia.
Located on the outskirts of Chicago, McDonald’s also expressed concerns regarding the criminal activity in the area, even though there are no palpable plans to move out of the city or out of state.
In 2022, American billionaire, hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, and founder, CEO, co-CIO, and 80% owner of Citadel LLC Ken Griffin announced he would be taking his $57 billion hedge fund to Miami, again using Chicago’s crime and budget woes as a main reason.
PENN Entertainment currently operates four separate casinos in Illinois while Barstool Sportsbook also provides mobile sports betting services in the Prairie State.
Barstool Sports’ first office in the Windy City is found in the Lakeview area where it hosts a sports bar in the River North.
Last November, Barstool Sportsbook went live in Maryland, allowing customers in the state to place wagers on top global sports leagues.