ISTANBUL / Khaled Youssef / Anadolu

Israel's Channel 12 reported Tuesday that Israeli company WSC Sports, specializing in sports technology and artificial intelligence, decided to lay off about 10 percent of its employees as part of a restructuring and cost-cutting plan against the backdrop of economic changes in Israel.

The channel said the company would lay off about 70 employees out of 680, including 60 employees in Israel.

The company's decision to lay off a proportion of its employees comes as the Israeli economy experiences a continuous decline in growth indicators due to the repercussions of the wars it has been waging since late 2023 in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

Recently, the newspaper 'Israel Hayom' reported that in 2022, 1,047 new high-tech companies were established in Israel, most of them startups; in 2023, the number dropped to 743; and in 2025, it did not exceed 775.

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reported in May that the GDP contracted at an annual rate of 3.3 percent during the first three months of the current year 2026.

The channel reported that the company announced the implementation of a comprehensive restructuring plan covering all its departments, noting that the decision came following changes in the macroeconomic environment.

The channel quoted the company as saying the decision is 'complex and painful but necessary to enable the company to continue its growth.'

The company clarified that the step is not targeting any specific department, job, or product, but is part of a plan to cut costs and adapt to changes in the global macroeconomic environment.

WSC Sports specializes in using artificial intelligence technologies to produce sports content, and collaborates with major sports organizations, including the NBA, ESPN, and the Spanish Football League, in addition to more than 650 sports organizations worldwide.

The company employs about 550 employees in Israel, out of 680 workers distributed across its offices in New York, London, Sydney, Thailand, China, and Japan.