Wolfpack's Dan David Faces Off With Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy

Every so often, the world of finance brings us a face-off between two big personalities. One of the most recent pairs to vie for superiority is Dan David of Wolfpack Research and Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports. 

The two are natural nemeses as David is a short seller, and Portnoy, owner of the sometimes-sexist sports blog Barstool Sports, has taken to day trading during the COVID-19 pandemic. He's been pouring money into hot stocks and touting them to the masses despite his warning for viewers not to trust anything he says about stocks. 

Dan David versus Dave Portnoy On Remark

David and Portnoy have been going at each other for some time on Twitter. Their latest disagreement is over the stock of Remark Holdings Inc MARK which David says is worthless. David recently gave a presentation at our Contrarian Investor Virtual Conference in which he said Remark was a fraud and called out Portnoy for touting its stock.

Portnoy has dubbed himself "Davey Day Trader Global" and claims to be a better investor than the legendary Warren Buffett, who he says is "washed up" when it comes to picking stocks. 

Why David Doesn't Like Remark

He noted that one of the biggest bull cases for the company is its stake in Sharecare, but that stake has been repossessed and is being held by a sheriff's department in Delaware. Remark agreed to make $1 million in payments to the former owners of Vegas.com but never actually made those payments. David believes the company will never own a stake in Sharecare going forward. 

He also doesn't think Remark owns the Chinese company KanKan, saying that the company doesn't have an agreement that creates contractual ownership. He doesn't expect the company to ever get its money back out of the deal. 

David also pointed out that Remark has diluted shareholders by 100% in the first half of the year. It issued 99.5 million of its 100 million authorized shares while having 17 million more shares tied to exercisable warrants and options. 

He also believes the thermal imaging technology the company sells is simply relabeled technology from blacklisted Chinese company Hikvision. Further, he noted that Remark's Chinese entities claim to have more cash than their parent company. 

Twitter War

Portnoy has admitted to losing money on Remark after David's presentation at the conference. He told the New York Post that he lost "close to seven figures" on Remark. David claims Portnoy pumped the stock and then dumped it. In his presentation, he called Portnoy "a menace," adding that he doesn't research stocks. 

"He hears from what he calls the birds on Twitter. They tell him this is a great company, and he starts pumping it," David said during his presentation. 

Portnoy and David have a combative history on Twitter, and Remark isn't the only stock they have traded barbs over. One of the other stocks they have clashed over is Microvision, Inc. MVIS. Portnoy accused David of "shorting stocks and then making up info to tank the stock." 

This rivalry is one that probably won't be going away any time soon. As long as there are short sellers in the world, there will be controversies involving them and those they are betting against.  

About the Author

Michelle Jones was a television news producer for eight years. She produced the morning news programs for the NBC affiliates in Evansville, Indiana and Huntsville, Alabama and spent a short time at the CBS affiliate in Huntsville. She has experience as a writer and public relations expert for a wide variety of businesses. Michelle has been with ValueWalk since 2012 and is now our editor-in-chief. Email her at Mjones@valuewalk.com.