Bally's Corporation

Bally's Corporation is a gaming company based in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It owns and operates twelve casino and racetrack properties in Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

This article is about the current gaming company. For the current slot machine manufacturer, see Bally Technologies. For the original company, see Bally Manufacturing.
Bally's Corporation
Formerly
  • BLB Investors (2004–2011)
  • Twin River Worldwide Holdings (2011–2020)
NYSE: BALY
Russell Microcap Index component
IndustryGaming
Founded2004
Headquarters
Lincoln, Rhode Island
,
U.S.
Key people
Revenue$437.5 million[1] (2018)
$71.4 million[1] (2018)
Total assets$782.3 million[1] (2018)
Total equity$298.7 million[1] (2018)
OwnersStandard General (32%)[2]
Number of employees
4,900[3] (2019)
Websiteballys.com

The company was founded in 2004 as BLB Investors. It eventually changed its name to Twin River Worldwide Holdings. In 2020, the company acquired the rights to the Bally's casino trademark, a long-standing brand first established by Bally Manufacturing, and changed its own name to Bally's Corporation.

History

Bally's originated as BLB Investors. BLB was formed in 2004 as a joint venture of Starwood Capital Group, Kerzner International, and the Waterford Group to launch a bid to acquire Wembley plc.[4][5] Wembley was a British operator of racetracks in the United Kingdom and United States, whose primary asset was Lincoln Park, a greyhound track and slot machine parlor in Rhode Island.[6] BLB ultimately reached a deal in February 2005 to pay $435 million for Lincoln Park, plus $20 million for Wembley's other U.S. properties, comprising a horse track (Arapahoe Park) and three greyhound tracks in Colorado.[7][8] The purchase was completed in July 2005.[9]

BLB undertook a $220-million expansion of Lincoln Park and renamed it in 2007 as Twin River.[10]

By 2008, BLB was struggling because of the economic slowdown, and it began defaulting on payments on the loans it had taken out to buy and renovate Twin River.[11][12] In June 2009, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a prepackaged plan to hand over ownership to its creditors.[13] BLB emerged from bankruptcy in 2010, now owned by a group of lenders led by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Sankaty Advisors.[14][15] The company changed its name to Twin River Worldwide Holdings in 2011.[16]

Logo of Twin River Worldwide Holdings (2011–2020)

In Colorado, the company's three dog racing tracks closed as interest in the sport declined, and all three were sold off by 2011.[17][18][19]

In 2014, Twin River bought the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Mississippi from Leucadia National for $250 million.[20][21] The acquisition was made to diversify the company geographically, in preparation for expected competition from Massachusetts, which had legalized casinos in 2011.[22]

In 2015, Twin River purchased Rhode Island's only other casino, the Newport Grand, for $22 million, and announced plans to move its operations to a new facility to be built in Tiverton.[23][24][25] The Newport Grand closed in 2018, and its replacement, the $140-million Tiverton Casino Hotel, opened days later.[26][27]

In March 2019, Twin River completed a reverse merger with Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, the parent company of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino.[28][29] The transaction made Twin River a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and left Dover Downs shareholders with a 7 percent stake in the combined company.[30]

In January 2020, Twin River purchased three casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado (the Golden Gates, Golden Gulch, and Mardi Gras) from Affinity Gaming for $51 million.[31][32][33]

In April 2020, Twin River announced a deal with Caesars Entertainment and Vici Properties to purchase Bally's Atlantic City in New Jersey, and a separate deal with Eldorado Resorts to buy Eldorado Shreveport Resort Casino in Louisiana, and MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.[34][35][36] The Atlantic City and Shreveport acquisitions were completed later in the year.[37][38]

In July 2020, Twin River bought two casinos in Missouri and Mississippi (Isle of Capri Casino Kansas City and Lady Luck Casino Vicksburg) from Eldorado Resorts for $230 million.[39] They were renamed as Casino KC and Casino Vicksburg, respectively.

In October 2020, the company agreed to buy Jumer's Casino & Hotel in Illinois from Delaware North for $120 million.[40]

Later that month, Twin River acquired the rights to the Bally's casino trademark from Caesars for $20 million.[41] Twin River said that it would rebrand "virtually all" of its properties under the Bally's name, a long-standing casino brand first established by Bally Manufacturing.[42] The company changed its own name to Bally's Corporation in November 2020.[43]

In November 2020, Bally's acquired the sports betting provider Bet.Works, and reached a naming rights agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to rebrand the Fox Sports Network group of regional sports networks under the Bally's name (later announced as Bally Sports), which includes provision of sports betting-related content across Sinclair sports networks.[44][45] The agreement also included warrants that would allow Sinclair to acquire up to a 15% stake in Bally's.[46]

In 2021, Bally's partnered with developer Ira Lubert in a plan to build a $120-million casino in the area of State College, Pennsylvania.[47]

Properties

The company owns and operates twelve properties:

Note: Bally's Las Vegas is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment, not Bally's Corporation.

References
  1. Form 10-K: Annual Report (Report). Twin River Worldwide Holdings. April 1, 2019. p. 29 – via EDGAR.
  2. Form 10-K: Annual Report (Report). Twin River Worldwide Holdings. April 1, 2019. pp. 99–100 – via EDGAR.
  3. Form 10-K: Annual Report (Report). Twin River Worldwide Holdings. April 1, 2019. p. 12 – via EDGAR.
  4. Heather Tomlinson (March 30, 2004). "Gambling tycoon trumps MGM's bid for Wembley". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  5. Brian Hallenbeck (November 27, 2012). "Holyoke is back in Massachusetts casino mix". The Day. New London, CT. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  6. Liz Benston (January 27, 2004). "MGM Mirage buying track, slot firm for $490 million". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  7. Karen Florin (February 9, 2005). "Wolman, BLB put new offer on table to buy Lincoln Park". The Day. New London, CT – via NewsBank.
  8. Jim Bainbridge (February 9, 2005). "New owners won't change local dog track". The Gazette. Colorado Springs – via NewsBank.
  9. Katherine Gregg (July 19, 2005). "BLB completes its purchase of Lincoln Park". Providence Journal – via NewsBank.
  10. M. Charles Bakst (April 1, 2007). "Slots are smoking at Twin River". Providence Journal – via NewsBank.
  11. George Brennan (June 14, 2008). "Tribe backers' 'racino' at risk". Cape Cod Times – via NewsBank.
  12. Erica Jacobson (June 15, 2008). "Struggling Rhode Island slot parlor faltering under debt". The Bulletin. Norwich, CT – via NewsBank.
  13. Jim Baron (June 24, 2009). "Twin River bankrupt". The Call. Woonsocket, RI – via NewsBank.
  14. Paul Grimaldi (November 10, 2010). "Twin River wins license transfer". Providence Journal – via NewsBank.
  15. Eric Tucker (November 9, 2010). "RI slot parlor emerges from bankruptcy protection". Associated Press – via NewsBank.
  16. "Facility Permit Ownership Transfer Application" (PDF). Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. p. 359. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  17. Wayne Heilman (December 16, 2010). "Off-track will get on track". The Gazette. Colorado Springs – via NewsBank.
  18. Terry Frei (May 27, 2010). "Doggone: Greyhound tracks R.I.P." Denver Post – via NewsBank.
  19. "Commerce City agency buys greyhound park". Associated Press. August 3, 2011 – via NewsBank.
  20. Paul Grimaldi (July 10, 2014). "Twin River completes purchase of Mississippi casino". Providence Journal. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  21. Richard Salit (December 15, 2013). "Twin River agrees to buy Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi, Miss". Providence Journal. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  22. "Purchase of Biloxi Hard Rock Casino 'important piece of puzzle' for Twin River". The Press-Register. Mobile, AL. AP. February 17, 2014. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  23. "Twin River acquires rival Newport Grand". Washington Times. AP. March 4, 2015. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  24. Form 10-K: Annual Report (Report). Twin River Worldwide Holdings. April 1, 2019. p. 4 – via EDGAR.
  25. Courtney Caligiuri (April 21, 2015). "Twin River announces plan to move Newport Grand to Tiverton". WPRI-TV. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  26. Shaun Towne; Steph Machado; Shiina Losciuto (August 28, 2018). "Newport Grand closes its doors, making way for Tiverton casino". WPRI-TV. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  27. Scott Barrett (September 1, 2018). "Tiverton casino opens with excitement, protest". Newport Daily News. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  28. Brad Allen (July 24, 2018). "Twin River acquires Dover Downs for sports betting and egaming expertise". eGaming Review. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  29. "Twin River completes Dover Downs acquisition and NYSE listing" (Press release). Twin River Worldwide Holdings. March 29, 2019 – via EDGAR.
  30. Brian Hallenbeck (July 23, 2018). "Twin River to merge with Delaware casino, trade publicly". The Day. New London, CT. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  31. "Twin River completes $51M purchase of 3 casinos". Washington Post. AP. January 24, 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
  32. "Black Hawk casinos bought by east coast operator Twin River". Denver Post. AP. January 29, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  33. Ben Markus (January 31, 2019). "Colorado's casinos, horse track arm wrestle over who will cash in on sports betting". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  34. https://www.inquirer.com/news/ballys-atlantic-city-sale-acquisition-twin-river-caesars-vici-20200424.html
  35. https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/Eldorado-Resorts-selling-Montbleau-casino-at-Stateline-569929791.html
  36. https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/eldorado-resorts-to-sell-tahoes-montbleu-louisiana-casino-for-155-million/
  37. Richard N. Velotta (November 18, 2020). "Caesars closes Bally's Atlantic City sale to Rhode Island company". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  38. "Shreveport's Eldorado Resort Casino gets new owners". KSLA-TV. December 23, 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
  39. Bailey Schulz (July 11, 2019). "Eldorado Resorts to sell 2 properties in preparation of Caesars deal". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
  40. Sarah Hayden (October 1, 2020). "Jumer's Casino and Hotel being sold for $120M to Twin River Holdings Inc". Quad-City Times. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  41. Josh Kosman (October 12, 2020). "Hedge-fund investor Soo Kim buys Bally's casino brand for $20M". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  42. Patrick Anderson (October 13, 2020). "Twin River could soon become Bally's". Providence Journal. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  43. "Bally's Corporation completes name and ticker symbol change" (Press release). Bally's Corporation. November 9, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-11 – via PR Newswire.
  44. Balderston, Michael (2021-01-27). "Sinclair, Bally Reveal Bally Sports Rebrand for RSNs". TVTechnology. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  45. "Farewell, Fox Sports West. Hello, Bally Sports". Los Angeles Times. 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  46. Novy-Williams, Eben (2020-11-19). "Bally's Buys Sinclair RSN Naming Rights As Part of Sports Betting Push". Sportico.com. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  47. Daniel Urie (January 4, 2021). "Bally's to open casino near Penn State's main campus". The Patriot-News. Harrisburg, PA. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
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