Boyd Gaming is a casino operator that is known to act swiftly and decisively when they attained the Pinnacle Entertainment. When Boyd Gaming took over, the popularity of Ameristar Kansas City, Ameristar St. Charles, Belterra Resort in Indiana and Belterra Park racino in Ohio increased. Boyd didn’t stop here. The operator also took over of Valley Forge Resort Casino near Philadelphia.
In Illinois, where slot routes operated, Boyd added the route operator Laettner Entertainment. In addition, Boyd doesn’t seem to rest. The chosen casinos have very high-quality assets which allowed Boyd to enter on markets where otherwise they wouldn’t be in. Valley Forge is also very exciting because Boyd Gaming was able to expand the slot floor with 250 machines.
The integration process is also going very well and the operator is happy to see where it is after six/seven months of process. Boyd Gaming was able to get these casinos because Ameristar/Belterra approaches Boyd by asking them if they want to partner with them. Boys Gaming accepted because they are always interested in growing their company so they were very excited to partner up and see what could happen.
The Performance So Far
In cases like this, where an individual operator gets a license and opens a property, it is hard for them to compete with somebody like Boyd. The operator is known to be big on size and scale and even on their capabilities, they are considered the best. They also have a large staff of marketing experts. The company can consolidate with a lot of house functions that can operate at a more efficient level. For a single operator is very hard to operate at such levels.
Boyd Gaming is able to take a lot of businesses and on the other hand they are able to bring a higher level of marketing and operating expertise. Boyd Gaming has 29 properties and they have been working for 45 years, so there is also a lot of experience.
In terms of integration, these five casinos will have the B Connected loyalty program. The program was already introduced on a couple of the properties and it will introduce it at the others in the near future. By gaining these casinos, Boyd Gaming was able to expand their players club and expand the database to all new players, which will allow them to visit Las Vegas and also other properties.
Last Words
About a year ago, Boyd Gaming got a new slot-route operation in Illinois. So player can enjoy all sorts of new slot games, similar to Book of Ra. The intent was to understand the business and use it as a platform so other states will continue to look at this as a form of gaming. In addition, Pennsylvania just introduced a smaller version of it. The whole goal is to be able to expand that platform into other states.
Boyd’s downtown Las Vegas casinos are also performing very well. There are more and more guests visiting the Downtown area. The area is where the company started, back in 1975. They don’t just know the market very well, it is also very close to their heart, because the company was founded there.
Boyd Gaming has talked a lot about a balanced approach of the business allocation and it speaks of focusing on reviving the business, like change the existing assets or looking for new places. They also want to continue on slowing down the business a bit and also increase it in some places.