888 to lay off dozens of employees at its Herzliya office as more and more gambling companies are downsizing their Israeli workforce and outsourcing to lower-cost tech hubs
Gibraltar-headquartered online gambling operator 888 Holdings is planning to lay off 45 employees from its 300-strong research and development team in Israel, local tech news outlet the Calcalist reports citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
Founded in 1997 by brother tandems Avi and Aaron Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, 888 currently employs more than 1,500 people across its international offices. About 600 members of the company’s global staff are located at its office in the Israeli city of Herzliya. Half of them work for 888’s research and development team. As mentioned above, the company is planning to part ways namely with 45 staffers from its R&D team.
The move comes as part of the operator’s newly rolled out strategy to cut costs and reduce the negative impact of tightening regulations across its key markets.
888 employs another research and development team, which is based in Romania. The employment costs in the South-East European country are much lower than those in Israel.
News about the online gambling company cutting its Israeli workforce arrive two years after 888 laid off dozens of employees in the country, once again to offset losses incurred by increased costs to operate in its key markets accompanied by growing pressure from gambling regulators.
Ladbrokes Shutters Tel Aviv Office
888 has not been the only gambling company to have moved to downsize its Israeli operations in recent months. It emerged early in April that Ladbrokes Coral has decided to close its office in the Azrieli Sarona tower in Tel Aviv.
The operator, now part of the behemoth GVC Holdings gambling group, originally set foot in the heavyweight tech hub in 2013. Last year, it announced that it would double its workforce in Israel to 200 from 100 staffers.
As part of a marketing reshuffle, Ladbrokes Coral will now put up the shutters of its office in Israel. A spokesperson for the operator’s parent company said that the office will be closed by the end of the year and that around 140 people working there would be either laid off or offered the opportunity to relocate at some of the company’s other offices.
Marketing positions will be transferred to Gibraltar, it also became known. Tech positions will be relocated to GVC’s office in Hyderabad, India. Laid-off workers would be treated in a “fair and compassionate” manner, the operator has promised.
Tel Aviv also saw the closure of William Hill’s office in the Azrieli Towers in 2017. Back then, the British bookmaker laid off more than 200 members of its 250-person team in Israel to reduce expenses and outsource to lower-cost destinations.
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