Erika Nardini Net Worth

Erika Ayers (formerly Nardini; born November 6, 1975) is an American businesswoman and CEO of the digital media company Barstool Sports.

What Is Erika Nardini’s Net Worth and Salary?

Erika Nardini is an American businesswoman, producer, and podcaster who has a net worth of $12 million. Erika Nardini is best known for being the Chief Executive Officer of Barstool Sports. Named the Most Controversial Woman in Sports by the “New York Post,” Nardini became the first CEO of Barstool Sports when she joined the site in 2016. She grew the company from a regional blog with a dozen employees to a national multimedia conglomerate with valuation of more than $500 million. Over the course of several transactions, Barstool was acquired by Penn Gaming for more than $500 million. Through those transactions Erika reportedly earned $20-25 million in pre-tax equity sales.

Barstool Sports was named a top 50 publisher in the US by Nielsen and has a wider reach than ESPN Digital, Turner, “The New York Times,” and “The Washington Post.” Erika previously held executive marketing positions at both Microsoft and Yahoo!, and she served as AOL’s Chief Marketing Officer from 2013 to 2015. Nardini has also executive produced the television series “The Barstool Rundown: Live from Houston” (2017–2021), “Barstool Sports Advisors” (2018), and “Barstool Yak” (2021) and the Barstool Sports podcasts “Pardon My Take” (2018–2021) and “The Dave Portnoy Show with Eddie & Co” (2021). Erika hosts the podcast “Token CEO,” which is described as “an explicit business pod for people without a business degree.”

Early life and education

Ayers spent much of her childhood in New Hampshire and Vermont. She received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Colby College in Maine.

Career

1998–2015: Early career, marketing

Ayers began her career working at the legal department of Fidelity Investments, before switching to marketing. She was the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Demand Media. Prior to that, she held executive marketing positions at Yahoo! and Microsoft. From 2013 to 2015, she was the chief marketing officer of AOL.

2016–present: CEO of Barstool Sports

In 2016, Ayers was named the CEO of Barstool Sports. Ayers oversaw the company’s expansion into multimedia, merchandising, streaming and pay-per-view programming. The company’s expansion into pay-per-view included the acquisition of amateur boxing league Rough N’ Rowdy in 2017.

The valuation of Barstool Sports doubled from $15 million to $30 million during her first year as CEO. It grew to $100 million in 2018. In 2018, Fast Company named Ayers as one of its “Most Creative People in Business”, citing Barstool Sports’ expansion into multimedia and merchandising during her tenure. That same year, Forbes ranked her 25th on its “Most Powerful Women In U.S. Sports”.

In 2019, she was ranked as #19 on The Big Lead‘s list of “The 75 Most Powerful People in the Sports Media Business.” That year, she was included on Crain’s New York‘s “Notable Women in the Business of Sports”. Adweek named Ayers as one of its “Most Powerful Women in Sports” in 2017 and 2020.

In 2020, Ayers was elected to the WWE‘s board of directors and resigned from that position in September 2022. Erika was also on the board of directors at Torchy’s Tacos.

In an interview with Digiday, Ayers discussed Barstool Sports’ growth during her tenure, from a valuation of $15 million in 2016 to $450 million in 2020. In September 2021, Ayers stated that the company’s revenue was expected to exceed $200 million in revenue, doubling the company’s $100 million revenue in 2020.

In 2022, under Erika’s leadership, Barstool Sports progressed more into live sports and streaming  by hosting and broadcasting its first College Basketball Invitational  and the first Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.

In 2022, Barstool Sports also launched its NIL marketplace platform, TwoYay which connects college athletes directly to advertisers.

In March 2022, Erika joined the board of directors for the Premier Lacrosse League.

Ayers has been named Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in Sports, recipient of Crain’s Notable Women in Sports, AdWeek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports, Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media, and a top player in the U.S. Betting Space and Podcasting by Business Insider.

Podcast host and public speaking

Ayers hosts Token CEO, a podcast about business and sports news. She was an early supporter of the Premier Hockey Federation (then National Women’s Hockey League), and interviewed NWHL players Kelly Babstock and Rebecca Russo on her podcast.

She is a frequent public speaker, and has given talks at the Milken Institute, CAA World Congress, the MIT Sloan Sports Conference, the SALT Conference, and G2E Las Vegas. In 2020, she spoke at Barrett Sports Media’s annual summit.