Twin River Worldwide Holdings is a gaming company based in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It owns and operates ten casino and racetrack properties in Colorado, Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri, and Rhode Island.
History
Twin River's predecessor was BLB Investors. BLB was formed in 2004 as a joint venture of Starwood Capital Group, Kerzner International, and the Waterford Group to launch a bid to acquire Wembley plc. Wembley was a British operator of racetracks in the United Kingdom and United States, whose primary asset was Lincoln Park, a greyhound track and slot machine parlor in Rhode Island. BLB ultimately reached a deal in February 2005 to pay $435 million for Lincoln Park, plus $20 million for Wembley's other U.S. properties, comprising a horse track and three greyhound tracks in Colorado. The purchase was completed in July 2005. BLB undertook a $220-million expansion of Lincoln Park and renamed it in 2007 as Twin River. By 2008, BLB was struggling because of the economic slowdown, and it began defaulting on payments on the loans it had taken out to buy and renovate Twin River. In June 2009, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a prepackaged plan to hand over ownership to its creditors. BLB emerged from bankruptcy in 2010, now owned by a group of lenders led by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Sankaty Advisors. The company changed its name to Twin River Worldwide Holdings in 2011. In Colorado, the company's three dog racing tracks closed as interest in the sport declined, and all three were sold off by 2011. In 2014, Twin River bought the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Mississippi from Leucadia National for $250 million. The acquisition was made to diversify the company geographically, in preparation for expected competition from Massachusetts, which had legalized casinos in 2011. In 2015, Twin River purchased Rhode Island's only other casino, the Newport Grand, for $22 million, and announced plans to move its operations to a new facility to be built in Tiverton. The Newport Grand closed in 2018, and its replacement, the $140-million Tiverton Casino Hotel, opened days later. In March 2019, Twin River completed a reverse merger with Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, the parent company of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. The transaction made Twin River a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and left Dover Downs shareholders with a 7 percent stake in the combined company. In January 2020, Twin River purchased three casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado from Affinity Gaming for $51 million. In April 2020, Twin River announced a deal with Caesars Entertainment and Vici Properties to purchase Bally's Atlantic City in New Jersey, and a separate deal with Eldorado Resorts to buy Eldorado Shreveport Resort and Casino in Louisiana, and MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In July 2020, Twin River bought two casinos in Missouri and Mississippi from Eldorado Resorts for $230 million. They were renamed as Casino KC and Casino Vicksburg, respectively.
