Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy denies ‘rough’ sex allegations

The creator of the popular online site Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy has rejected explosive allegations about alleged sexual liaisons.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has denied the allegations. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

Barstool Sportsfounder Dave Portnoy said new allegations that he has a penchant for rough and violent sex are “100 per cent not true”.

The 44-year-old creator of the popular online site was accused by several women of abusive and humiliating trysts that one woman said left her “literally screaming in pain” during one encounter, Business Insider reported.

“It was so rough I felt like I was being raped,” one alleged victim, identified only as Madison, said she texted to a friend, the outlet said. “He videotaped me and spit in my mouth and choked me so hard I couldn’t breathe.”

“It was so painful,” she said. “I kept trying to get away and he was like, ‘Stop running away from me’,” and then “just went harder”.

Business Insider said it spoke with more than two dozen people tied to Portnoy and Barstool, including women as young as 19 who reported explicit online exchanges.

Three of the women said they had sex with Portnoy, calling the experience “frightening and humiliating”, with two saying he choked them and filmed them without permission.

One woman said she was suicidal after the encounter — but was afraid to speak up.

“I know how he is when someone goes after him,” one woman said. “I thought he would say something in public, or share videos or me.”

Portnoy is hugely popular — but also controversial — figure in America. Within hours of the article’s publication, Portnoy responded in a video on Twitter claiming the new accusations just aren’t true — and saying the sexual encounters were consensual.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has categorically denied the claims. Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

He called the article “a hit piece” that was “eight months in the making”.

Portnoy said the allegations were “jarring” and added he and Madison had spoken online for a month before she flew out to meet him at his Nantucket home.

“Her version of events is not true on our hook-up, just not true,” he said of her claims. “Neither of us were like, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be doing’ — it was 100 million per cent consensual. What’s going on in her brain? I have no idea.”

“At no point was it not 100 per cent consensual,” Portnoy added. “At no point did she ask me to stop. At no point did either of us think something unseemly happened. There was no weirdness after. It was totally fine. Normal interaction.”

Asked about a second allegation that one of his partners were later hospitalised for depression, Portnoy said: “If she’s depressed because she hooked up with me, that’s awful. That’s freaking awful. I feel terrible about it.”

Despite the denials, Business Insider says it stands by its reporting.

Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003 in his hometown in Massachusetts, literally taking to the streets to distribute what was then a free four-page newspaper.

He later went digital and built the company into a major success.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission