Barstool Sports is feeling the pinch, and its CEO is saddened by the loss of employees at the company.
On Thursday, the company started to lay off a chunk of its workforce, which The Post first reported on Wednesday would be nearly 25 percent of the staff — roughly 100 people.
Barstool employed about 430 people, and the layoffs, which Dave Portnoy announced Wednesday were coming, began not long after he bought back the company from Penn Entertainment for $1.
The somber week at the sports entertainment company was addressed in a statement from CEO Erika Ayers Badan, who praised the employees who got caught up in the layoffs.
“Over the years, we’ve hired and trained the best of the best,” Ayers Badan said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s sad we have to let some of those people go. I urge any company that can hire them to do so.
“They’re all stars.”
Additionally, the Barstool CEO posted a picture of a memo that was sent to employees following the layoffs.
“We are letting go a lot of good people today — people who worked hard and alongside us,” the memo read. “Everyone whose job has been affected has been notified and will be contacted by HR today to cover the details of their separation. This is a really hard day involved.
“It’s important that Barstool be able to stand up and sustain itself on its own. We are not going to have the luxury of so many people or so much help anymore which will change how we do things.
“This is going to require us to be smaller and for people to step up.”
Barstool has developed into a sports media behemoth since it was founded by Portnoy in 2003.
He sold a majority of the company to The Chernin Group in 2016 before Penn Entertainment finalized its acquisition of Barstool in 2020.
Portnoy claimed he is trying to get back to the “break-even” point as he takes back the company.
“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. “And people who know me from the beginning 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.”