Sports bar? How about three?

Barstool Sports, the digital media company founded by the controversial Dave Portnoy and backed by Wyomissing-based Penn National Gaming, opened its Philadelphia sports bar on a March Madness Friday, adding to a bustling nightlife zone in Washington Square West.

It’s accessible through a modest entrance at 1213 Sansom St., smack across the narrow street from the landmark Fergie’s Pub and within a block of many bars and restaurants including Finn McCool’s, El Vez, Sampan, Time, Bar, and Barbuzzo.

Barstool Sansom Street — as this location is branded, following the first location that opened in Chicago in January — has three bars, topped with dozens of TV screens, scattered around the sprawling double-wide property. The operators, New York-based Stanton & Bowery Hospitality, kept the brick walls from previous occupant Brickwall Tavern.

Portnoy, who founded Barstool 18 years ago, is a polarizing influencer known to his acolytes as “El Presidente.” He is known for his “One-Bite Pizza” reviews on YouTube as well as for his Barstool Fund, which has given more than $40 million to hundreds of small businesses during the pandemic.

Last year, Portnoy was accused of sexual misconduct in a Business Insider article in which two women accused him of violent sexual behavior, and former and current employees alleged he cultivated a workplace environment of racism, sexism, and misogyny. Portnoy denied the allegations.

Barstool may look like other hypersized sports bars — with two dozen beer taps and, in the middle of Friday afternoon, the delivery of Tito’s Handmade Vodka on pallets — but Barstool is using it to leverage its brand as a gaming app. This is an immersive experience at the confluence of media, sports, and gambling.

Such next-generation sports bars are not betting parlors and thus do not require gaming licenses, as would a sportsbook with kiosks at a casino. The bars provide an atmosphere, including food, drinks, TVs, and advertising, aimed at younger customers. The Barstool venue will promote its popular mobile sports-betting app, available in 11 states; the company said in 2020 it has upward of 66 million active monthly users.

Bankroll Club, a sports bar now under construction on the site of the Boyd Theater in Rittenhouse with a Stephen Starr restaurant, is due to open in the fall.

Penn National Gaming, which paid about $163 million in early 2020 for a 36% stake in Barstool, bills itself as North America’s largest regional gaming operator.

Barstool Sansom Street saw a steady stream of bosses that had grown to more than 100 people by noon, an hour after opening. Philadelphia lawyer Jordan Freeman, stopping in after a court date, said he liked the bar setup, noting that an internal wall had been partly removed to allow for a more open floor plan.

It is open weekdays from 5 pm to 2 am and 11 am to 2 am weekends.

The bar’s Instagam account reposted a story from user @cfd_chuck, who boasted at 7:26 am that he was first in line. Contacted later for his reaction, Chuck Lynam, a Temple University dental student, said he lives nearby and simply stopped to take a short video before heading to class.