Vision to reinvent the Bally’s brand
Twin River Worldwide Holdings has announced it will officially rebrand its corporate identity to Bally’s Corporation starting November 9. Twin River’s common stock will trade under the new ticker symbol BALY when trading on the New York Stock Exchange opens on November 9.
purchased the rights to the Bally’s brand from Caesars Entertainment in a $20m deal
The news comes two weeks after the Lincoln, Rhode Island-based casino company first confirmed it had purchased the rights to the Bally’s brand from Caesars Entertainment in a $20m deal. According to a press release, Twin River will “implement a unified branding initiative” over the coming months, following the Rhode Island-based operation’s aggressive 2020 expansion in the US.
The decision to change corporate identity shows Twin River’s intent to reinvent the Bally’s brand, which company chair and hedge-fund investor Soo Kim said Caesars “really weren’t utilizing”.
Rich history in American gaming
In the news release, Soo Kim said the Bally’s brand was one of the gaming industry’s “most iconic brands [and] ripe with untapped innovation potential.” He added that the brand has a rich legacy in American gaming and fits perfectly with Twin River’s growth strategy for the short and long term.
14 casinos, a horse racetrack, and 13 off-track betting venues across ten states
Twin River’s strategic portfolio diversification strategy means that, following the closure of pending transactions, it will operate 14 casinos, a horse racetrack, and 13 off-track betting venues across ten states. Twin River currently serves more than 80 million customers at its casinos. The rebranding will see its database swell to around 14 million players.
2020 buying spree
Twin River has been on something of a buying spree in 2020. In April, it snapped up Bally’s Atlantic City from Caesars, along with two Eldorado casinos in Louisiana and Nevada, as Caesars and Eldorado scrambled to sell assets ahead of a $17.3bn merger. In July, Twin River purchased another pair of Eldorado casinos in Missouri and Mississippi. It then bought Jumer’s Casino and Hotel in Illinois in October.
After the corporate rebranding announcement, Twin River president and CEO George Papanier said that now was “an exciting and transformative moment” for the company. The move, he stated, is an opportunity for Twin River to merge its existing nationwide customer offerings under one iconic brand.
Papanier added that the Bally’s brand was integral to his omni-channel gaming firm’s drive to fuse its physical casinos with online solutions to gain leverage from digital growth.