When Richard Haddrill looks back on his Hall of Fame gaming career, his proudest achievements aren’t just the advancements in technology he helped champion that are now commonplace throughout all facets of legalized gambling.
The hundreds of gaming industry executives and leaders he helped mentor going back to the 1990s also give him a sense of accomplishment.
Richard Haddrill, vice chairman, Scientific Games
Haddrill, 65, proudly mentioned the nine current gaming industry CEOs whose career courses he helped steer. He also can point toward nine CEOs in other industries that were his former associates and employees.
“I think I did a good job of recruiting and motivating people,” said Haddrill, one of four inductees to the Gaming Hall of Fame Class of 2018. He will be enshrined next week at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.
In his current position as vice chairman of Scientific Games Corp., Haddrill is continuing to develop gaming industry leaders. The board position allows Haddrill to take an active role with the gaming equipment giant, including providing strategic consulting to the various business divisions and working with the corporate executives, including CEO Barry Cottle, who was named to the position in June.
“We have a very good team in place, and the company has a great future,” Haddrill said.
Haddrill helped engineer the $5.1 billion merger in 2014 between Scientific Games and Bally Technologies, where Haddrill had spent a decade as CEO, growing the company from solely a slot machine maker into a multi-faceted gaming equipment provider.
Bally was teetering toward bankruptcy when Haddrill first joined the company in 2004. He credits long-time gaming industry veteran Bob Miodunski with restoring Bally to financial health, which allowed Haddrill to come in and expand the business.
“Bob said he wasn’t the right guy for the next phase,” said Haddrill, who had been CEO of a supply-chain technology builder when approached about joining Bally. Five years earlier, Haddrill sold Powerhouse Technologies to Anchor Gaming. Powerhouse, a gaming technology company, helped develop the Powerball mega jackpots and other advancements for the video lottery industry.
Richard Haddrill and music Superstar Pitbull celebrate a new slot machine.
Bally had acquired several technology and gaming system businesses, as well as a slot machine design studio that gave the company a foothold into the Class II market. Haddrill stepped in and developed the pieces for the two Bally divisions – gaming equipment and systems.
“We had good slot machines, but not video slot machines,” Haddrill said. “We focused on our content, our new cabinets and other products, and developed a systems business that became an industry leader. We had a very good return on our capital.”
In 2013, Bally bought SHFL entertainment in a $1.3 billion deal, which gave the company access to electronic and live table games and casino management equipment, such as electronic card shufflers.
Haddrill gave up the CEO position in 2013 to become Bally’s chairman. He returned to the CEO role in May 2014. Seventy days later, Bally was sold to lottery provider Scientific Games. Two weeks earlier, GTECH Holdings bought International Game Technology for $6.4 billion.
The mergers put the lottery industry’s two giants into the casino slot machine business.
Haddrill said it was a natural progression. Having started out on the lottery side himself, he said technology allows game content to transition seamlessly between different platforms – traditional casino games, lottery, mobile, and social.
“We overcame the regulatory hurdles for new products, and that has given us tremendous flexibility,” Haddrill said. “Bally, and now Scientific Games, are at the forefront.”
Haddrill’s original career was an accountant, but he said he “always had my nose and fingers” in technology matters.
“I had enough knowledge to ask smart questions, but I also hired the right people,” Haddrill said.
Outside his role with Scientific Games, Haddrill is a philanthropist through his Richard M. Haddrill Charitable Gift Fund. The organization contributed more than $500,000 to Las Vegas causes last year. He is also the founder and CEO of The Groop, a private investment firm that partners with for-profit businesses which have a social benefit.
Haddrill said he was honored to become part of the Gaming Hall of Fame, especially when he looks at the names of previous honorees.
“It’s tremendous to be compared with some of the giants of our industry,” he said.
Editor’s note: Second in a series of profiles on the 2018 Gaming Hall of Fame inductees.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
