Barstool was not in a good place financially when Dave Portnoy reacquired the company for $1. He says the he knows brighter days are ahead for the brand, but there could be some painful steps to get there. Those apparently include layoffs.
Will Burge, a podcast host that worked remotely from Cleveland, was amongst the first let go. In a social media post, he said that he is out. Other content creators ave been let go as well. The people losing their jobs are the ones that are not at Barstool headquarters daily.
“Dave bought the company back. Barstool’s back to being what it is when it’s at its best—and that’s a reality show. To be part of the reality show, you gotta be in one of the offices,” Burge said. “So obviously, it doesn’t make sense to have a remote employee who is not a part of the main product that Barstool is pushing at this point.”
Burge added that he came on board when the company was owned by Penn and it was looking to expand into more markets with legal gambling. He understands that things are different now and he has no hard feelings about the decision.
Barstool brought in nearly $81 million in revenue in the first six months of this year. Still, that resulted in a net loss of $16.1 million for Penn Entertainment, who paid a total of $551 million for ownership of the brand.
That was not news to Dave Portnoy when the opportunity to buy Barstool back from Penn presented itself.
“It may be rough for a couple months getting things back to where we’re not getting f***ing smoked, but I think I could make this a good place to work,” he said in a video explaining his vision for the company moving forward.
