Not three weeks after buying back Barstool Sports from Penn Entertainment for $1, founder David Portnoy is laying off a slew of employees — reportedly around 25%.
Portnoy — who founded Barstool in 2003 as a free sports and gambling newspaper and sold it to Penn for about $550 million after the site evolved into an entertainment behemoth boasting 200 million followers — said if he did not get rid of some people, everyone would lose their jobs.
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“I’ve been very clear, to anyone who has paid attention, we are going to have layoffs and cuts, and it’s started, and it sucks,” he said on Barstool Sports Radio on Tuesday.
The site has more than 100 shows and 90 personalities and influencers delivering content via podcasts, video, social media, live events, pay-per-view and swag for sale — “solidifying its position as a multimedia powerhouse,” Penn said when it paid $388 million for the portion it didn’t already own back in February 2023.
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“No one likes having to let people go, but we had to make some cuts,” read the caption on a YouTube clip from his show, titled, “Why Layoffs Are Coming To Barstool Sports.”
Portnoy has previously come under fire for racist, anti-union and sexist remarks.
“People who know me from the beginning know that I hate firing people,” he said. “Having said that, we’re in a position it’s a no-brainer. It’s not like I have that moral — well you can’t do it because nobody will have jobs. We’ll all not have jobs. So we have to get back to a break even thing. We’re losing a lot, and it sucks.”
With News Wire Services
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy announces layoffs
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