Explaining bar stool staff salaries and negotiating contracts

Barstool Sports is (almost) always making headlines — and they’re probably getting paid well to do so.

Grace O’Malley announced her departure from the company in December 2024 after parting ways with a longtime boyfriend Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia (more on that here) and has since spilled the tea what she did for the brand.

“I didn’t do anything when I was there. I had a salary and that was it,” O’Malley claimed during a January 2025 appearance on the “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von” podcast. “I had the opportunity to leave and I took it.

O’Malley went on to claim that former “PlanBri Uncut” podcast co-host LaPaglia was paid “way more” than she was.

“I never made any money (podcast tour). The bar stool took it,” she claimed. “I didn’t care either. I was glad to be there. I was thrilled to have the job.”

He’s not the only Barstool personality to detail his salary over the years:

The Grace O’Malley Revelation

After O’Malley’s podcast claims her former boss (and Barstool founder) Dave Portnoy they shared numbers. He said TikTok video from January 2025 that O’Malley’s base salary was $175,000 a year and she earned 70 percent of “everything” sold on their personal social media accounts.

“In 2024, she raised an additional $75,000 this way,” Portnoy continued. “(Her interview) might have been interrupted, a bit misconstrued, but it bothers me when people give the impression that they’re not being paid fairly. I think we treated Grace – as I said from the beginning – great.’

Portnoy also addressed pay disparities at LaPaglia. “Bri was a much bigger personality,” he continued.

Portnoy explained that once Barstool returns the personality’s base salary, it will “split every dollar 50/50” going forward. “I don’t like it when people make it like we’re cheating our creators because we don’t,” he added.

KFC promotion

Kevin Clancy (known to Stoolies as KFC) was named CEO of comedy Barstool Sports in July 2023. He announced the news on his “KFC Radio” podcast. at the time and shared that the career move came with a payoff — but didn’t share details.

Clancy explained that he quit his full-time corporate job at Barstool after knowing he was getting paid “enough to live on,” which at the time was $50,000.

“I think I started at 50 and then whenever I got like 100 grand, I think I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to make six figures on this,'” he said. Elsewhere in the episode, Clancy said that his promotion does not guarantee contract negotiations.

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

Clancy probably makes a lot more now as one of the longest running personalities in the company.

“Chickens in the Office” Talk of contract negotiations

When Ria Ciuffo and Fran Marianowho host the “Chicks in the Office” podcast, appeared on “Trading Secrets” podcast. in 2021, they offered Inside Barstool to take over the company’s contract negotiations.

Mariano said their second Barstool deal (in September 2018) was a big moment for the podcast host.

“It only took us one year to get a new contract that was double the amount we started with,” she said. “The second time we heard that number, we were like, ‘Oh, it works.’

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

“I feel like we’re compensated through our salary,” Ciuffo said. “I feel stable in the way I get paid.”

‘Call Her Daddy’ of it all

It was 2020 and “Call Her Daddy” was hosted by two people – our now single father Alex Cooper and former cohost Sophia Franklin. Regular listeners of the podcast wondered if there was drama on the show when the women appeared to be speaking in code. Then the truth came out.

To spare you all the details all these years later, one of the problems was that Cooper and Franklyn had contract disputes with Barstool before their friendship fell apart.

Cooper told listeners during the May 2020 episode of the podcast that she and Franklyn signed a “three-year contract” that paid them $75,000 in the first year, $85,000 in the second year, and $100,000 in the third. During their first year together, they got a raise, then Cooper got another salary for handling the production of the podcast as well. (She did not share this with Franklin.)

After the success of the podcast, women started asking for more money. However, Franklin’s boyfriend at the time (who eventually began shopping the podcast to other networks) reportedly convinced the podcast host that they should ask for $1 million. Portnoy heard about the show where it was being shopped – leading 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 wasn’t – so they split up. Cooper remained at Barstool until June 2021 and went on to sign massive deals with Spotify and SiriusXM.