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Barstool Sports Is Betting Big on Philly. But Are We the City They Think We Are?
Rough, lewd Barstool founder Dave Portnoy thought this was the perfect urban center from which to launch his new sports gambling app. Maybe once upon a time, information technology was.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Photograph by Tom Briglia/Getty Images
Information technology's a rainy Fri afternoon in Havertown, and a guy from Boston is almost to try a slice of pizza.
Dave Portnoy, founder, president and confront of Barstool Sports, emerges from Sam's Boardwalk Style Pizza with a large pie in hand, wearing a Barstool cap and a black hoodie bearing what looks similar the Eagles logo but upon closer inspection actually says "Scumbags." Portnoy delivers his catchphrase — "1 bite, everyone knows the rules" — and stuffs a piece in his yapper. He did the same thing a half hour ago at Pica'southward Restaurant in Upper Darby. No one paid much attention to him there, probably because well-nigh folks in its queue appeared to be north of xl years old.
Sam's is a different scene completely. "They're very excited to meet me," Portnoy says into a camera, and seconds later, the Sam's coiffure emerges to watch his critique, which is part food review and part Friars Club roast. One teen staffer seems so starstruck that he won't expect directly at El Presidente, as the 43-year-old is known to his fans. Portnoy sarcastically notes the "super-romantic outdoor seating" along the adjourn in forepart of Sam's and glances at the bar adjacent door. "I bet people get fucked up at the Jug's Inn," he says in what'due south still a remarkably thick Boston emphasis. After noting that Delco is but the 2d locality that's threatened him with concrete harm if his ratings aren't high enough (never change, Delco), Portnoy gives Sam'due south a fine-but-don't-become-out-of-your-way-to-try-this vii.iii.
Afterward he leaves for the next pizza shop, a young redheaded woman who works the counter at Sam's remains breathless. "Oh my God," she says. "I'm still shaking. I can't believe that simply happened. He walked in and I was like, That's Dave Portnoy."
If y'all're wondering what pizza-tasting has to do with Barstool Sports, it's a fair question that deserves an answer. Barstool, born in Boston and now based in New York, began every bit a four-folio newspaper; since then, information technology'southward grown from a one-man weblog to a full-blown media empire. Today, the Barstool universe includes more than 100 million full followers beyond its social media platforms (among them "I Can't Even," an Instagram for cute pet videos), forty podcasts (including a business organization-themed show co-hosted past Alex Rodriguez, with a J-Lo cameo), Barstool coverage individually tailored to well-nigh every major college, a SiriusXM channel, merchandise, a vodka brand, and, forth with Portnoy'due south day-trading channel, his "One Bite" pizza reviews, which take a dedicated app and more than 330,000 YouTube subscribers. Similar to Vice in its telescopic and outside-the-mainstream attitude, Barstool is as well a lifestyle make — one that's squarely aimed at the advertising grail of xviii-to-34-year-old men. With revenue in 2019 just south of $100 meg, it's an undeniable success. "We make charismatic content," Barstool'southward CEO, Erika Nardini, says with typical Barstool swagger. "We're the fastest-growing on the fastest-growing, non on dying platforms similar cable."
Now, in the realization of Portnoy's longtime business fantasy, Barstool Sports has entered the gambling arena with help from an unusual partner: Wyomissing-based casino and racetrack operator Penn National Gaming, Inc. Barstool and Penn National launched their gambling app, Barstool Sportsbook, in Pennsylvania in September. Since by law you can only utilise the app if you lot're physically in the state, Portnoy and a cast of Barstool characters moved into an Old Metropolis townhouse to livestream games, place wagers and bust balls. At first glance, it was an ironic moment for Portnoy: Die-hard Bah-ston fan and Patriots lover needs Philly to get even richer and make his dream of running a sports gambling empire come true.
Merely the total story isn't so nifty and tidy. There'south Portnoy the businessman, who'due south built a company valued at $450 1000000 from nothing and was in one case named past the Forward as one of the "Net's Biggest Jewish Stars." And there's El Presidente, who'due south like a poor man'southward Howard Stern in the '90s, which is non a great fit for 2020. He is, though, a man for our time. In that location's something eerily Trumpian nigh Portnoy and, in turn, about what Barstool Sports represents. If you're familiar with the brand at all, it'south probably for its aggregation of chuckle-worthy videos like the PornHub logo appearing on CNN'southward election coverage or a FedEx guy'due south flatulence caught on a Nest cam. The flip side of that content coin, however, has fatigued the ire of everyone from ESPN to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Barstool goes far beyond funny-dumb in highly-seasoned to the male person id. It traffics in everything from misogyny to racism to outright violent, abusive language directed at women. It also speaks to a growing separate amid Philly sports fans — i that, in turn, reflects the greater chasm in America right now.
Barstool goes far across funny-dumb in appealing to the male person id. Information technology as well speaks to a growing divide among Philly sports fans — ane that, in plough, reflects the greater chasm in America right now.
As Portnoy tells me, "Philadelphia is a very Barstool metropolis." Seeing as Barstool is a lot more than than sports, that statement suggests that we as a city accept, fifty-fifty comprehend, Barstool's ugly side — that we're cool with an N-word here and a rape joke there and a history of online attacks aimed at women. But Philadelphia got rid of Donald Trump. We trashed the Frank Rizzo statue. Fly Basin is long gone. Are we really a Barstool boondocks? And if so, do we want to be anymore?
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Are you a Stoolie?" That's the first question I was asked by a PR person when I took my initial peek into the deep rabbit hole of everything Barstool encompasses. I'd only casually followed it on social media and knew of Portnoy'due south more notorious stunts — making t-shirts featuring NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's face adorned with a clown nose, getting physically removed from Super Bowl LIII in 2019 for using a fake media credential, being denied his prize later casting a winning $250,000 bid for a charity evening with Goodell. (He really hates Goodell.)
I started to become a better sense of what Stoolie life means at the Barstool Sportsbook firm on Curvation Street. Before I joined Portnoy for his pizza reviews in Delco, he gave me a bout of the iii-story pad. While no one actually lives here — Portnoy himself bounces from a hotel virtually Rittenhouse Square to his home in New York — in the fall it came live on weekends for football. The second-floor den is the focal point, with iii blackness couches accented past a Hooters pillow below Barstool signs with slogans like "It'southward Only Money" and a wall of six huge flat-screen TVs.
This Dave Portnoy isn't the loftier-volume guy in the videos and on the podcasts. As he sinks into the center of a couch, he vaguely resembles a bearded Marker Zuckerberg if yous dialed the Facebook founder's coding power down to zero and amped the bro factor style upwards — that "Scumbags" hoodie, skinny-ish jeans, lime green socks, white kicks. (No mask, of course.) Portnoy explains that the sweatshirt and his Pats-loving grudge against Philadelphia is shtick, which his Stoolies sympathize. "Our fans, they become that it'due south a give-and-take," he says, acknowledging his status as a "Masshole." "I like the urban center a lot … it's an Due east Declension vibe, sarcastic, cutting. I call back people are excited that we're here. If we walk exterior, every time, I get, 'Welcome to Philly.'"
Dave Portnoy at a Barstool pizza-tasting. Photo past Tom Briglia/Getty Images
Portnoy'southward aim wasn't to become a glory when he launched Barstool in Boston back in 2003. He liked sports, gambling, and the idea of working for himself, so he started printing a broadsheet newspaper and taking ads from offshore betting sites. Later a couple years of handing out copies at T stations every morning, Portnoy saw Barstool accept off when he leaned into low-hanging humor and put photos of scantily clad models on his covers. Much as the 700 Level at the Vet was autograph for rabid Philly fandom, Barstool became Boston's insiders' sports club.
Credit Portnoy for two qualities that led to Barstool'southward wild growth — a willingness to try anything, and an appetite for risk. Barstool expanded to regional coverage in New York and Philly and stretched beyond sports, with features similar "Smokeshow of the Day" babe pics, a "Barstool Blackout Tour" that barnstormed higher towns with all-night EDM dance bacchanals, and catchphrases like "Saturdays are for the boys," which became so ubiquitous that the official Flyers Twitter and athletes from Rob Gronkowski to Michael Phelps used it on social media.
Barstool saw its majority pale purchased in 2016 for a reported $x one thousand thousand by a venture capital house and moved its offices to New York's Flatiron district. With an accomplished CEO in Nardini to handle the business concern side — and provide a respectable female face up for the company — Portnoy kept cranking out content. Today, Barstool has some 250 employees, and among the many pro athletes who are fans is Phillies star Bryce Harper, who's on the official "Team Portnoy" roster of El Presidente'due south celebrity pals.
Portnoy saw his next big play in 2018, when the Supreme Courtroom paved the way for legalized sports gambling outside Nevada. Rather than squad up with an established online leader like FanDuel or DraftKings, Portnoy found the perfect cream-political party trip the light fantastic toe partner in Penn National Gaming. Penn CEO Jay Snowden says of his first sit down-down with Portnoy and Nardini, "Nosotros knew what we needed to go later on with this app, and they had information technology — the brand and the audience. What they needed was a partner who understood the gaming industry."
Virtually importantly for Portnoy, Penn wanted to let Barstool take the atomic number 82; the gambling company operates the app, but the user feel is all Barstool branding. Portnoy pushed to launch in Pennsylvania to capitalize on the land'south $463 million-and-growing online wager market and Barstool's robust post-obit in Philadelphia. In a win-win for Sportsbook and Portnoy's temporary adopted town, he initiated a promo to enhance money for the struggling Reading Terminal Market that ultimately scored $250,000 in donations for the market place and roughly 1,500 new customers for the app.
The other highlight of Sportsbook'southward brief history is a video of Portnoy watching every bit the Chicago Bears demote their starting quarterback in favor of Nick Foles. "Everything I've got on fuckin' Big Dick Nick," he says as he drops $20,000 on the Bears. To date, that video has been viewed more than 277,000 times; it was followed by one of Portnoy rejoicing in the confront of a very dejected dude when Chicago took the pb. Similar a certain president, El Pres loves nothing more than than winning and values the time-honored American tradition of reveling in someone else'south defeat. "People like watching people dice on the couch," Portnoy tells me. "They similar heartbreak. If your team loses in the end, people similar watching the fans of those teams die in real time."
Barstool counts a few born-and-bred Philly guys among the personalities who frequent the Sportsbook house. "Dave has created this environs where the higher living room is a viable workspace," says Adam Ferrone, a.m.a. Rone, who appears in the first Bears video. The 32-year-onetime Penn State grad and Delco native is one of Barstool's creative burn hoses, generating a seemingly countless stream of material like man-on-the-street interviews conducted with an exaggerated Philly accent under the nom de mic of "Angelo Paolantonio." He describes working for Barstool every bit the best task he'south always had, thanks to the liberty Portnoy gives him: "I only desire to go on churning out content. It'due south sensory overload, a 24-hour-a-twenty-four hour period task." As for why Barstool feels then at habitation in Philly, Ferrone says, "There's some grit about Barstool. Someone from Philly doesn't necessarily give a fuck most what yous think. And there's a lot of that in Dave as well."
•
In Barstool circles, the joke is that manufactures like this ane always mention the controversies. Most of those controversies involve Dave Portnoy, who used to be a blogger and at present is a multi-channel content creator and internet personality. He's always seen himself as a comedian, and the site, and specifically Portnoy, has long trafficked in the kind of humor that was one time chosen "locker room" and more than recently "presidential." In a nod to Ben Roethlisberger, who'd been defendant of rape, a Barstool t-shirt in the late aughts featured the QB's jersey number and the motto "Throwing picks, assaulting chicks." (Roethlisberger was never criminally charged.) When asked near an article from 2010 suggesting size-six women "kind of deserve to be raped" for wearing skinny jeans, Portnoy told the Huffington Post his intent was to mock skinny jeans, and that rape jokes are "such a small fraction of what nosotros do." (Portnoy also defended posting a naked pic of Tom Brady's so-two-year-one-time son by saying critics who feared it would become provender for pedophiles "take never been on the internet.")
The man has a history of turning his Sauron-like gaze on critics of Barstool. A long-standing beef with ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown host Sam Ponder began when she took offense to a Barstool blog opining that her primary job was to "make men hard." He doubled down in a podcast, proverb no one wanted to see Ponder's kid on camera and calling her a "fucking slut." Like the jeans annotate, he later said information technology was all sarcastic — Of course a mom isn't a slut, people! Ponder didn't purchase it. She complained publicly when ESPN signed Barstool for a TV prove, and other ESPN staffers did and then in private, according to reports. The show was canceled after one episode because the network couldn't split the program from "the Barstool site and its content," ESPN'due south then-president said.
What ever follows any criticism of Portnoy's misbehavior is the wrath of a passionate ring of Stoolies who defend him and their beloved brand via social media and online comments. As detailed in an HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel piece past Soledad O'Brien, former Deadspin writer Laura Wagner — a frequent target of Barstool — was subjected to barbarous tweets from Stoolies that included ane calling her a "miserable cunt." Portnoy penned a mock article under her byline for Barstool, and sexual comments aimed at Wagner are still visible on Barstool's site.
But before the Daily Beast posted a detailed inventory of the controversies, Portnoy posted the cell number of the reporter, Robert Silverman, on Twitter — accidentally, he claims, but the damage was washed, and the Barstool troll army mobilized. "That was a bad four days of getting text messages and FaceTime requests from the Stoolies," says Silverman. "But it pales in comparison to what a adult female on the internet who says something critical about Barstool Sports has to deal with." HBO's O'Brien reached out to 15 women who'd been targeted by Barstool and its fans, and none were willing to speak on camera for fear of enraging the Stoolies again.
Dave Portnoy yukking it up with President Trump terminal year. Photograph by Mallory Blount
Portnoy — who considers himself apolitical and says he'southward not registered to vote — earned national buzz by interviewing Donald Trump at the White House in July. It was a natural pairing, since both men follow an identical playbook: Court controversy, never apologize, and play victim to a politically correct civilization run amok. Ponder confronted Portnoy recently in a New York restaurant, a coming together he gleefully recounted in a podcast. ("She came out swinging," he said. "I respect that.") Asked most Wagner, Portnoy says she started it past writing about his marriage — he's separated from his wife — and calling him "sociopathic." He's certain the number of women Real Sports claimed wouldn't hash out him is a prevarication and says he believes O'Brien actually liked him simply was pushed by host Bryant Gumbel to call him "vile." (In response to a request for comment from O'Brien, an HBO spokesperson said, "We stand up by our reporter and our reporting.") Asked to comment for this story, Wagner, who at present writes for Vice, gave her stock respond: "I can't believe this guy is all the same talking about me."
Portnoy'south offensive soapbox isn't solely aimed at women. In tweets and a since-deleted slice, he said protesters against police brutality who blocked a Boston highway in 2015 should be killed. Old Barstool videos surfaced last year of him using the Northward-word while reciting rap lyrics and musing that Colin Kaepernick looks like "an ISIS guy." Such was the reckoning within Barstool over Portnoy'south comments that ane personality quit, and its 2Biggs podcast devoted an 80-minute episode to giving seven minority Barstool talents time to explore their conflicted feelings well-nigh the company and Portnoy. (In true Barstool manner, the episode's title included both the phrase "At present It'southward Going to Get Extremely Existent" and its acronym, which set off more than social media outrage.)
Hoping to make sense of all of this with local people close to Portnoy, I reached out to a popular onetime employee, Maurice "Tall Mo" Peebles, who as the first Barstool Philly beat editor was one of its few Black staffers and is now the new editor in principal of Complex. He declined an interview. Through the Phillies, "Team Portnoy" member Bryce Harper also said no thank you. Barstool PR connected me with two hugely successful Philly natives with a podcast on the Barstool network, cousins Wallace "Wallo" Peeples and Nasir "Gillie Da King" Fard, of the One thousand thousand Dollaz Worth of Game testify. Both said Portnoy reached out and "spoke his slice" virtually the racially charged videos, merely they wouldn't go into details. "We dealt with things personally," Wallo said. "We're not perfect — I served time. Merely we wouldn't deal with him if he wasn't a solid person."
One unlikely critic of Portnoy is Will Leitch, founder of the trailblazing sports blog Deadspin, which in its heyday was an uncomfortable thorn in the side of institution sports journalism. In a 2018 slice for New York titled "What Fresh Hell is Barstool Sports?," Leitch took Portnoy to task for Barstool'due south treatment of women and for assuasive the Stoolies to act out. Leitch also drew a comparison between Portnoy and a co-founder of Vice who was eventually driven out of that visitor, in office for his "virulently intolerant" views. That founder, Gavin McInnes, has become amend known for a grouping he started — the Proud Boys.
Calling me from Georgia two days after the November election, Leitch pauses from vote-count-watching to put Barstool into context. "It'due south not like everything they practise is diseased," he says. "And non all of their readers are raging misogynist shitheads. Merely whenever yous get in the Barstool crosshairs, it is real. And they've never said stop it or taken responsibleness for information technology."
Now that Barstool, via Sportsbook, has entered an industry that's highly regulated, some observers wonder if nosotros might be on the verge of a kinder, gentler Dave Portnoy era. Penn National CEO Snowden talks about certain "guardrails" they've established so Portnoy doesn't suspension whatsoever laws while mouthing off. He may have come shut to hitting 1 of those guardrails in October, when he made comments that appeared to suggest he runs the same Sportsbook he's too betting on, maxim of Penn National, "They answer to [Snowden], and they answer to me."
Another off-limits topic is union-busting. When Portnoy threatened to fire any Barstool employee interested in organizing in a serial of tweets in August 2019, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez replied to inform him he was "likely breaking the law & can be sued." (She didn't respond to his invitation to a contend and historic on Twitter when Barstool settled with the National Labor Relations Board over the incident.) "Dave has a mic and a camera in forepart of him 24/7," says Snowden. "Sometimes he'southward in a practiced mood. Sometimes he'due south not. He's learning. We're all learning together. There are going to be some bumps in the road." While ESPN couldn't take the heat stoked by Barstool'due south ugly side, Penn National seems confident there's only plenty separation to brand the partnership work.
Portnoy describes Barstool, sans irony, as "a comedic website — in, like, a Seinfeld-esque mode. Like, you lot know, cutting observations of society." The closest he comes to a mea culpa in our conversations is in regard to the N-word. "Would I have sang that lyric now? No," he tells me. "Times are very unlike. … I wouldn't do information technology again. [But] I can't become back and apologize for that because in that moment, it was like, what I idea a harmless — like, I was never trying to cause harm. So is it a gray area? Is it semantics? A little scrap. If plenty people are truly incensed, whose opinion I respect … "
The bad-male child governor in Portnoy's caput kicks in before he says he'd ever atone for by behavior. Causing impairment, he claims, "is never the goal. We're trying to make people express mirth and entertain." But similar the president he once interviewed, Portnoy knows controversy is essential to his identity; as recently as June, he declared himself "uncancellable."
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Exit it to the Sixers to plow a marketing layup opportunity into a civilisation-wars misfire that clangs off the rim. Upon unveiling new alternative jerseys featuring Boathouse Row, team president and Villanova alum Chris Heck coined the term "New Philadelphia" to define what the Sixers see equally a urban center rich with "culture … didactics … diversity." Which is groovy, except that in doing so, Heck simultaneously took swipes at "blue-collar" identity, the Flyers, and the use of the word "Philly" itself, deeming it "lazy." Afterwards well-deserved mocking online, Heck issued the requisite amends.
In that location's a kernel of truth in what he tried to limited, all the same. Our fandom contains multitudes, and we're seeing a fracturing in the fan base that runs deeper than the economics of who sits in which seats — corporate fat cats in the lower bowl, salt of the world in the nosebleeds — at the games. With analytics seeping into every aspect of all sports, and eggheads similar current Eagles general director Howie Roseman and former Sixer GM Sam "Trust the Process" Hinkie, not the jocks, making franchise-altering decisions, a growing number of fans — largely the arts and crafts-beer-drinking hipster types — would rather have deep dives into data and debate player contracts than get shit-faced in the Jetro tailgate lot and first fights with rival fans.
Dave Portnoy at a Buffalo Bills tailgate in 2019. Photograph by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images
Merely those fans don't brand up Barstool's core audience, which is essentially young white males who remember like old-timers: I desire my sports free of crap like math, women without pompoms, and athletes with agendas. (It's plumbing equipment that Portnoy has embraced the old Michael Jordan anti-activist quote that's long haunted the Hall of Famer: "Republicans buy sneakers, also.") Even the Sportsbook is an extension of a throwback mentality. You used to need to know a guy if you wanted some action on the Birds to beat Dallas. Now, Dave Portnoy is the guy, and he's in your pocket. You, also, can be a degenerate gambler, kid. Like Barstool says, it's only coin, right?
When it comes to Barstool's future, Penn National may somewhen have more to say about it than Portnoy. It purchased 36 percent of the company this year and will own 51 percentage in year three, with an option for full control by 2025. Early returns on the Sportsbook are trending up but mixed: At its launching in September, it was fourth in market place share in Pennsylvania, but it stayed in the scarlet that month with minus $2.eight meg in net gaming revenue (possibly not surprising, given the $2.2 1000000 in promotional credits used to lure new users to sign up. By belatedly Oct, revenues were upwardly to $3.i million.). It planned to launch in Michigan in late December, and Snowden aims to add at least 12 states in 2021, including New Bailiwick of jersey. Penn National has said its "guardrails" include "harassment or bigotry of women or minorities," but Portnoy insists the only content restrictions he'southward been given relate to gambling regulations and "tiffs with elected officials."
Asked what's ahead, Portnoy embodies i of his alter egos, Davey Pageviews — a man sustained past the instant gratification of modern media. "I don't think that far in accelerate," he says. "I'chiliad not going anywhere anytime soon. At least for 5 years." Which is a lifetime, considering that TikTok — the hottest platform for Barstool's video content, with 12.3 million followers and counting — is barely iv years old. "The world changes then fast," he adds, "and we've been very good at adapting to change, but I — we're non good at predicting it. Merely we're mobile, agile, and as long as we remain that fashion, I think we will have a good future."
It'southward likely the Sportsbook business firm will shut down afterwards the Super Bowl and Portnoy volition return to New York, where he'll watch as the app creeps into new markets across the land and think back fondly on his brief time eating pizza here. Still, there's something uncomfortable in the realization that Philly, vis-à-vis the Sportsbook, could help catapult Barstool into another decade of success. Beingness a sports fan here means acknowledging both the sublime and the despicable of our history. Maybe you lot're fine with booing the home squad and climbing greased light poles on Broad Street. But the racism once aimed at the tardily Dick Allen; the thuggery that necessitated a jail at the Vet and resurfaced every bit recently equally the Eagles/Baltimore game in October; the leering legacy of Fly Bowl; and the feeling that you yet demand to keep your head on a swivel and maybe call back twice about bringing your wife or daughter or mom to sure games — that'south not for the boys. It'due south for bodily scumbags. Like the majority of Philly fans, most Barstool followers are harmless. The difference is that their leader tacitly engages in and condones behavior that has a very tangible, dissentious impact. Imagine Jeff Lurie allowing morons to start brawls or shout rape jokes at the cheerleaders.
The truth is that we are both New Philadelphia and a Barstool urban center. We stanned hard for Joe Biden even as large swaths of Northeast and Due south Philly and the River Wards stayed solidly Trump. And then memo to everyone hailing Portnoy equally a hero on the streets of Onetime Metropolis: Recall what you're also supporting when you log on to Barstool for guy-takes-Wiffle-Ball-to-the-nuts videos or to lay a few bucks on the Birds. And lest you lot kid yourself about whether Portnoy, chastened by justified criticism or raised stakes in a new arena, can evolve, remember when people thought Trump could become presidential once he was actually the president.
Meantime, in this moment, just as the country needs healing, let's imagine a futurity of our fandom in which the analytics crowd isn't then elitist and the 700 Level throwbacks are a bit more open-minded. Permit's, you know, accomplish across the alley at the Linc and share an overpriced beer despite our differences. Sure, some people are incapable of growth. Only let'south also remember one of the lessons of the 2018 Eagles title — that sometimes this city can exceed even our wildest imaginations.
Published as "Can't Anybody in Philly Take a *&%&%@&%$ Joke Anymore?" in the January/February 2021 issue of Philadelphia mag.
Source: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2021/01/23/barstool-sports-dave-portnoy-philadelphia/
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