Some relationships are doomed from the start. Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage. Larry King and any woman ever. Bally and sports. You might know the latter from its ill-fated sponsorship of the former Fox Sports regional sports networks. Or perhaps you’re familiar with their role in the incredulous relocation of the Oakland A’s. Whatever the case, your impression is most likely negative.
The story of Bally and sports starts with the noble and majestic sport of…dog racing. We are not off to a good start. Anyway, a group of real estate and hospitality-focused investment firms partnered up under the name of BLB Investors to purchase Lincoln Park, a dog racing track, and the connected Foxwoods Casino in Rhode Island, along with a few other properties, in 2005.
The key arrangement was an agreement with the Rhode Island government to allow the site to expand into a massive casino. Renovations were completed on the eve of the Global Financial Crisis which meant people were less inclined to go to what was then called a “racino”.
Long story short, BLB Investors would file for bankruptcy in 2009, close all the dog tracks, remerge as Twin River Worldwide Holdings in 2011 and start buying up every dumpy casino in America that hit the market from the mid-2010s onward.
The Bally name
So, what about the actual Bally company you have likely heard of? They began manufacturing pinball machines and various other amusement games in the 1930s before eventually becoming the market leader in slot machines.
It was a wildly successful brand over the years due in large part to the rise of Las Vegas and popularity of pinball machines. The company also played a crucial role in video games, publishing Pac-Man and Space Invaders, among other classics. And then the 1980s hit.
Bally just started buying up any and everything during the decade. Some of these investments, such as Bally Total Fitness, were successful. Other moves, like acquiring the Six Flags theme parks, were disastrous.
Ultimately, Bally switched its focus from making slot machines for casinos to owning casinos. This is where most people probably recognize the Bally name in modern times. Eventually, the company was acquired by Hilton in 1996 and was part of various other transactions and mergers between 2000 and 2020. That brings us back to Twin River Worldwide Holdings.
The Bally brand was held by Caesars Entertainment and was used for some properties under its watch, including Bally’s Atlantic City. That casino and resort had drawn the attention of Twin River who saw it as the perfect addition to its growing portfolio of C-list gambling establishments. At some point during these talks, the company decided to buy the Bally brand.
It felt the name was ideal for a massive rebranding, changing the company’s name to Bally’s Corporation and having all of its casinos feature the Bally’s name. It was a bold move to go all in on a name most people at this time associated with a now-defunct chain of fitness centers. This logic was a sign of things to come as it relates to Bally and its relationship with sports.
Bally x Sports
The newly rechristened Bally’s Corporation found itself wanting a piece of the sports betting pie but was super late to the party. As you’ll see, its strategy in this landscape was to throw money at anything regardless of how dumb the idea seemed.
That brings us to Bally’s first significant foray into sports, Bally Sports, the former collection of Fox Sports regional networks. Shortly after the rebrand, the company announced a naming agreement with Diamond Sports Group, the entity that is majority-owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
For Bally, they got their name plastered on 21 regional channels and content integration. For Sinclair, they pocketed annual naming rights fees, a committed percentage of Bally’s marketing spend and the ability to purchase a 14.9 percent stake in Bally’s Corporation.
It must be stressed that this was an awful idea at the time. Regional sports networks were a failing business with little hope of future success. A month prior to the agreement with Bally, YouTube TV and Hulu dropped these channels entirely. And only 14 days before, Sinclair wrote down the regional sports business.
Let’s put a pin in this for the time being.
A few months into 2021, Bally made a bunch of other acquisitions as it looked to beef up its sports betting offerings as well as other sales funnel tools that could drive people to its casinos and apps.
There was the purchase of SportCaller, a startup specializing in free-to-play games. Their tech seems solid, and they have a track record of success. Bally simply has no clue on how to leverage it. There is the Bally Sports Trivia app that has become an afterthought. They developed a Bally-branded fishing fantasy game app. At the end of the day, buying SportCaller has done nothing for either party.
Also in early 2021, Bally scooped up daily fantasy sports provider Monkey Knife Fight, the third largest DFS player at the time of the deal. Two years later, the platform was shut down after losing large amounts of money because Bally had no idea what to do with it.
Earlier this year, Bally had to close its sports betting app as it shifted from a platform the company purchased to a third-party provider. In most states it operates in, Bally Bet has less than a one percent market share of mobile betting.
One of the more head-scratching decisions was Bally’s decision to buy the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP). It is the largest and longest-running professional beach volleyball tour in the United States and the sport as a whole has seen a surge in popularity. So, how did the new owners capitalize on this? By not investing any money in the tour.
One of the reasons it purchased the AVP in the first place was for content that it could broadcast on those Bally Sports channels. And yet, they did nothing to expand the tour and handed ESPN+ broadcast rights to some events.
About that whole regional sports television investment. Their partner, Diamond Sports Group, went bankrupt, a couple of channels have been wound down and the entire situation is bleak. For Bally, their investment has put the company’s name front and center on a sinking ship. In fact, many people have assumed they are the ones who filed for bankruptcy, not understanding the company is simply a naming rights partner.
Bally’s has gotten a negative return on this investment because they are now associated with a failing entity. That is fairly fitting given how horribly all their other sports investments have worked out.
Failed betting app. Check. Failing to launch free-to-play games despite owning tech. Check. Buying a sports entity and sitting on it. Check.
With all of that in mind, it should come as no surprise they are involved with the biggest swindle in sports in recent times, the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas. This all began in 2022 when Bally’s Corporation agreed to purchase everything on the Tropicana site but the land. They signed a 50-year lease for that.
Like just about every other casino in Bally’s portfolio, the Tropicana is old and uninteresting. It is undoubtedly the worst hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The company wanted to do something with the site, although no one knew what. Then bumbling moron John Fisher came stumbling into Las Vegas in desperate need of a place for his baseball team to play.
After flirting with a few sites, someone at the Tropicana had a grand idea. Let’s make another desperate investment in sports. They offered Fisher nine acres of land to build a stadium at the site for free. This would then be used to anchor whatever resort Bally hopes to build.
We have covered the Oakland A’s relocation at length here so there is no need to rehash that. Here is what needs to be said. Since Bally’s Corporation began investing in sports toward the end of 2020, every decision has been awful. They have wasted a comical amount of money on various things, none of which can be classified as remotely successful.
A lack of leadership and a tangible plan has submarined all of Bally’s efforts in the sporting sphere. It has truly been a match made in hell. What this means for the Oakland A’s or any other sporting-related organization the firm touches remains to be seen. But as a betting man, I’d take any wager against Bally having success with sports.
