Swedish betting and gaming operator Betsson is to make around 160 employees redundant to “restructure and streamline the organisation with the ambition to make it more efficient,” the company said in a statement.
Of the 160 being cut, 130 are based at the company’s Malta headquarters with Times of Malta reporting that 48 are Maltese nationals.
According to its website, Betsson currently employs 1,900 across 12 locations. The loss of 160 positions represents an 8.5 per cent reduction in overall staff numbers.
Betsson chairman Pontus Lindwall said: “In co-operation with the operational management team, we have started to implement actions to improve operations.
“The restructured organisation will be more streamlined with clearer responsibilities, which I believe will improve its efficiency over time”.
CEO Jesper Svensson told Times of Malta that the move followed a period of growth and acquisition, rendering a number of positions surplus.
The changes will take effect in January with costs relating to the restructuring recognised in the interim report for the first quarter of 2018.
Betsson said the estimated cost saving of the changes would be SEK50m to SEK60m (€5.1m to €6.1m) annually.
Betsson stock initially dropped to SEK63.1 on the Stockholm stock exchange following the news, a fall of 6.3 per cent against last week’s high of SEK67.32, before recovering.
