In October 2021, Bally’s Corporation completed its transaction to acquire Gamesys Group, an online gaming company with a 20-year history and offices across the globe, including London and Malta.
The merger brought together thousands of employees from vastly different industries and cultures. It was the dawn of a new day for Bally’s, and the start of a considerable challenge for the employer branding and communications team, whose role now was to unite the company’s 10,000 plus employees with a combined purpose and set of values.
The Bally’s merger wasn’t a simple matter of two companies joining together- in fact, Gamesys was only one of the companies that joined the Bally’s team that year following a number of acquisitions. The diversity of this portfolio sets Bally’s apart, according to Bally’s CEO Lee Fenton, who stated in an interview last year that Bally’s is the first company in its industry to have both their retail and digital operating at the same scale.
Among the various properties, companies and brands acquired in 2021 are B2B providers, digital gaming operators, 14 land-based casinos dotted around the United States, and even a horse racing track. Products and offerings on the digital side of the business span a huge range including sports betting, online casinos, bingo, free to play, and fantasy sports, all spread across offices in over a dozen different locations. The final result was a business with 10,000+ employees around the world!
Of course, bringing together this unique amalgamation of skills and expertise is one thing- getting them to align under the same banner of core values is quite another.
“Creating a core purpose for the company was a top priority as soon as the merger was finalised,” said Raissa Tabone, Director of Employer Brand and Internal Communications for Bally’s. She continued: “With so many employees joining under the relatively new banner of Bally’s Corporation, establishing our identity as a unified brand was one of the first steps in our strategy.”
Using the existing Gamesys purpose and values as a starting point, the Bally’s team conducted a series of workshops to find what values really sat at the heart of their newly united workforce. Being sure to factor in representation from across the company, these workshops included a cross-section of staff, ranging from new joiners to long-time employees, entry level roles to senior leadership, and both the digital and retail arms of the business.
Through a painstaking process that spanned 6 months and took in opinions from all corners of the globe, the team was able to boil everything down to the one factor that united the company across all sectors: their need to delight and fascinate players. Though there will always be new challenges when dealing with a team that spans across entire continents, Bally’s has a guiding purpose to see them through, they are: “Born to Entertain – engaging experiences everywhere”.
Visit careers.ballysinteractive.com if you’d like to know more about open roles within the Bally’s Interactive team!
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