Caesars May Rename Bally’s Las Vegas with Horseshoe Brand

Posted on: March 25, 2021, 04:42h. 

Last updated on: March 25, 2021, 05:01h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Caesars Entertainment is rumored to be considering renaming its Bally’s Las Vegas property as the Horseshoe, another of the operator’s well-known brands.

Bally's name change
Bally’s Las Vegas. Caesars is rumored to be considering a name change for the venue. (Image: Pinterest)

The rumor was initially reported Wednesday by Vital Vegas, which indicates the venue could eventually be known as Horseshoe Las Vegas. A request for comment on the matter to Caesars by Casino.org wasn’t replied to prior to publication of this article.

Assuming a name change happens, it won’t be the first time for this integrated resort. When it opened in 1973, it was the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. The company known as Bally Manufacturing acquired it in 1986, renaming it Bally’s.

That company started as a maker of gaming devices and pinball machines, before expanding into casino operations and health clubs. Bally’s Las Vegas was sold to Hilton Hotels in 1996.

Why Name Change Makes Sense

A company known as Park Place would eventually operate Bally’s, renovating the venue in 2000. That firm would later take the Caesars name. In 2005, Harrah’s Entertainment became the owner of Bally’s through its $5.2 billion acquisition of Caesars.

The combined operator was renamed Caesars in 2010, and for more than a decade, the only gaming venues in the US bearing the Bally’s name were in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, NJ.

That’s slated to change, sparking the need for a new name on the Strip venue. Last year, Caesars sold the Bally’s brand to the company previously known as Twin River Worldwide Holdings (TRWH) for a reported $20 million. Prior to that, TRWH purchased Bally’s Atlantic City. Under the terms of the brand purchase agreement, the buyer provides a perpetual license to Caesars to use the Bally’s name in Las Vegas.

Perhaps sparking Caesars’ desire to rename the Las Vegas venue is “new Bally’s” growth and plans to put essentially all of its casinos under the Bally’s brand.

Once a nearly anonymous regional gaming operator, Bally’s today is a $2.23 billion powerhouse built on a variety of acquisitions that are taking the company into international markets, iGaming, and sports betting. When accounting for pending deals, the company will run nearly 15 land-based casinos in almost a dozen states, meaning Bally’s Las Vegas would be an outlier if it continues to operate under that name, because Bally’s Corp. has nothing to do with that property.

Horseshoe Has Own Cache

As Vital Vegas notes, the Horseshoe name has its own pizzazz in the gaming world and is a throwback to a bygone Sin City era.

It has history, too, with the original Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas having opened in the early 1950s.

Currently, Caesars operates five venues under that brand — one apiece in Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, and Mississippi, though the Horseshoe Hammond Casino in northwest Indiana is likely to be sold this year.