Twin River bets customer service will fuel growth

Taylor
Taylor

John E. Taylor Jr., chairman of the board for Twin River Worldwide Holdings, parent company for Lincoln’s Twin River, has helped develop a diversification strategy that includes the July 2014, $250 million purchase of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi in Biloxi, Miss.
Hard Rock, a destination resort, has about 1,300 video slot machines and 50 table games, while Twin River has more than 4,500 slot machines and 80 table games. But Hard Rock also has other amenities Twin River doesn’t have, like the Hard Rock branding and a hotel.
In a competitive regional market that could become even more saturated with the addition of three resort casinos and the Plainridge Park Casino in Massachusetts, Taylor discusses synergies between Twin River and Hard Rock and whether more expansion is coming anytime soon.
PBN: What made it attractive to diversify Twin River Worldwide Holdings last year by buying the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi?
TAYLOR: When I became chairman in November 2010, we focused on what we saw on the horizon. Massachusetts [gaming] was coming, and it was a certainty of when, not if. We put together a strategy with core elements to it and one was table games. We were able to get the table-games referendum passed in 2012, and it’s been very successful. The second thing was customer service: We spent a lot of time and resources to get our employees to deliver superior service. The growth we have experienced has come from that customer experience. The third thing was to get our balance sheet in order so that if diversification opportunities presented themselves we’d be able to consider it. Hard Rock was one of those opportunities. It’s a resort casino, a market we felt very good about, not only outside the region but from a product perspective. It’s a destination. And the Biloxi market is known to be a stable market and [benefits from] some lessons learned from Twin River.

PBN: What are some of those lessons learned?
TAYLOR: We’ve grown from 15-16 percent to 29 percent market share at Twin River. We have learned how to attract players and deliver experiences with a relatively high tax rate in the state of Rhode Island, and we can bring some of those approaches to a different market.

PBN: Can you be more specific?
TAYLOR: In Rhode Island, we’re competing with two of the world’s largest casinos, Foxwoods [Resort Casino] and Mohegan [Sun]. We’re doing so in an environment where we have less to spend on marketing and promotion, and we’re doing that successfully. So, how we communicate and market the facility in Biloxi is based in large part on the success we’ve had doing it Rhode Island.
I’m sure my competitors in Biloxi, Miss., and Connecticut would love to know how we do that but I don’t want to share that publicly.
And it does go the other way. Any successful business draws from experiences that are added in and can be productive, and we’re doing that.

PBN: Rhode Island projects revenue losses associated with expanded gambling in Massachusetts and with an overall softening of the casino market beginning in fiscal 2016, Moody’s said in November. What’s the plan to deal with the possible downturn in revenue?
TAYLOR: Our continued focus [is] in delivering great customer service. On our second floor we recently opened a second pub called the Shipyard and started to refresh game content. We’ve added weekend entertainment as well. We’re continually considering what we hear from our guests and what we think they’d like to have.
In terms of the broader corporate perspective, we continue to consider opportunities that may be right for us, the right properties where we can add value. We don’t have anything imminently out there.

PBN: How is Biloxi doing less than a year after the acquisition?
TAYLOR: We had a plan, we’re executing that plan and it’s going better than we thought it would. It’s a competitive market and we can’t telegraph the things that we’re doing.

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PBN: The Biloxi casino added a tower to its hotel recently. Is growth in revenue accompanying that expansion? TAYLOR: I believe the Biloxi market was underserved from a hotel-room perspective. It has met our expectations and even exceeded that a bit.

PBN: You’ve just begun to explore with the Lincoln Town Council the possibility of opening a hotel at Twin River. How might your experience with the Biloxi hotel help inform that decision?
TAYLOR: The decision to pursue a hotel in Rhode Island is largely based on two dynamics: the changing New England gaming environment and requests from our customers who would like the option to play, dine and stay on property. Clearly, we will benefit from expertise in the Biloxi market. However, it’s important to underscore that the Biloxi property is a large destination resort. For Rhode Island, we are proposing a small amenity hotel [with] 150 to 250 rooms.

PBN: Biloxi has Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, the Hard Rock brand name, and a hotel – amenities that Twin River does not have. Any plans to model Twin River offerings on Biloxi?
TAYLOR: We actually signed a deal for a local restaurant operator in Biloxi: the Half Shell, about three blocks from Hard Rock. We’ve been able to persuade them to come to Hard Rock and open there to bring a local flavor into the Hard Rock. And it’s something it’s got us thinking about for Twin River. In the future we might do something like that. That said, we own and operate the restaurants at Twin River and they do extremely well. We have … franchises, Johnny Rockets and Sbarro, and they do equally well.

PBN: The Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, Mass., broke ground last March and is due to open this year with 1,250 slot machines and a new pub by former NFL football player Doug Flutie. How are you preparing for that?
TAYLOR: The second floor [of Twin River] is the same exact design as what they are developing in Plainridge. When customers look at all we have from a gaming and dining perspective, we think they’re going to come to us. We are confident our players are going to come back to where they feel comfortable. •

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