Barstool Sports will lay off nearly 25 percent of its employees, which will result in around 100 lost jobs on Thursday, The Post has learned.
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy has publicly stated the cuts were coming after he regained control of the company following its breakup with Penn Entertainment.
Barstool has around 430 employees.
It added around 300 people in the 3 1/2 years it was with Penn.
“I’ve been very clear. Anybody that’s paid attention, we are going to have layoffs and cuts, and they’ve started and it sucks,” Portnoy said earlier this week on Barstool Sports Radio. “And people who know me from the beginning [know] I hate firing people. You can be incompetent, not work and I generally don’t fire because I hate it so much. It’s the worst thing to f–king do.
“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.”
Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003.
He sold a majority of Barstool to The Chernin Group in 2016.
In 2020, Penn Entertainment finalized its acquisition of Barstool for a total of $551 million.
Penn lost hundreds of millions on Barstool, which the company had originally hoped would boost its sports betting business by tying into one of the most recognizable brands in sports media.
Following the sale back to Portnoy earlier this year, Penn Entertainment announced it was partnering with ESPN to rebrand its existing sportsbooks.
Portnoy called the situation a “win-win” and wished ESPN and Penn Entertainment the best of luck in their relationship.
“More importantly, for us, for Barstool, for the first time in forever, we don’t have to watch what we say, how we talk, what we do,” Portnoy said. “It’s back to the pirate ship. By the way, I will never sell Barstool Sports [again], ever. I’ll hold it ’til I die.”
That may be the case, but Portnoy is asking those remaining in the trenches with him to get ready for a bumpy ride, saying, “People have to step the f–k up.”