Twin River has run dry.
Bally’s Corp. officially began trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, completing the name change for the regional casino operator from Twin River Worldwide Holdings.
The rebranding, which coincides with the Rhode Island-based company’s rapid expansion across the U.S., was done in part to link the operation with a historic gaming industry name. Twin River announced plans for the name change last month after spending $20 million for control of the Bally name, brand, and intellectual property.
Last week, New Jersey gaming regulators approved the company’s $25 million acquisition of Bally’s Atlantic City.
“The company is implementing this name change as part of its unified branding initiative, which complements the considerable geographic growth and operational improvements the company has achieved this past year,” Bally said in a statement.
The company plans to give the Bally name to much of its portfolio. In addition to the Bally Atlantic City deal, the company has three other deals in place to acquire a total of four resort-casinos in four states.
Bally is acquiring Tropicana Evansville in Indiana from Caesars in partnership with real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties for a combined $480 million. The company is also paying $120 million for Jumer’s Casino & Hotel in Rock Island, Illinois, and $155 million for Eldorado Shreveport in Louisiana and the operations of MontBleu Resort Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
By the time the new Bally finalizes its current acquisitions, the company will operate 14 casinos in 10 states.
“The Bally’s brand is core to our drive to become the first omni-channel gaming company to seamlessly integrate and operate physical casinos with digital solutions,” Twin River CEO George Papanier said last month.
The Bally name has a long history in the gaming industry. Bally Manufacturing was a pinball and arcade-games developer when it branched off into slot machines. The gaming equipment business was sold and evolved into Bally Technologies and was one of the industry’s largest manufacturers when it was bought by Scientific Games in a $5.1 billion purchase in 2015.
In addition to Bally’s Atlantic City, Bally’s Las Vegas is the only other casino in the U.S. with the Bally’s name is Caesars’ Bally’s Las Vegas. As part of the agreement for control of the name, Caesars has a “perpetual license” to use the Bally’s brand in Las Vegas.
The former Twin River stock symbol is now BALY. Shares closed Monday at $27.90.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
