Twin River Worldwide Holdings and the International Game Technology (IGT) may have just found a solution to their long-standing strife. The two gaming operators announced their new working partnership on Thursday. The report states that this conclusion was reached after a series of long talks the representatives from the two sides have been holding.
Under the new deal, the two gaming operators will now control the supply of electronic gaming machines to casinos operated or branded by Twin Rivers. IGT will have a 60% stake in the new deal, while Twin River will control 40%.
The deal is supposed to materialize from 1 January 2022, if it approved by the Rhode Island legislators and regulators. Twin River is hoping to commence the supply of the gaming equipment as agreed upon in the deal from 1 July 2020.
Currently, IGT supplies approximately 85% of the gaming machines in Rhode Island casinos, something that does not settle well with Twin River. This has been the root cause of their long-standing rivalry. According to the news by CalvinAyre.com, in the new deal, other manufacturers will be allowed to supply gaming machines. Twin River will put in its application for a technology provider license which will enable it to acquire at least 23% of the slot floor from third party vendors.
IGT has been seeking to extend its contract with the Rhode Island Lottery for another 20 years, something that Twin Rivers had been actively objecting to. Twin Rivers had even gone ahead and the help of sort activists to press the government to open the lottery contract to other bidders. This again seems to have disappeared with the new deal.
Twin River is now seeking to extend its own contract with the state which is set to expire in 2030. Confirmed rumors are that the officials want the renewed terms extended to at least 2043, and the catch is that they want to include some clause in the new bargain as part of the contract basics. The two companies are hoping their applications will be approved through a single bill to be presented in the current legislative session.
At first, many legislators did not seem content with the idea of extending IGT’s contract. With the new deal, the lawmakers have given the signal that they are ready to consider the extension of the contract, so long as the two forget their rivalry, therefore, reducing the uncertainty in the state’s budget.
The deal will also give Twin River an opportunity to upgrade its Lincoln casino. It is planning to expand its 1st-floor gaming space by 40,000 square feet, build a new spa that will extend 14,000 square feet and remove the gaming machines from the 2nd floor.
The 2nd floor is expected to be the new entertainment space for the casino. Twin River is also planning to move from the offices they are currently leasing and move to their own offices. The offices will be their new permanent address and will extend up to 12,000 square feet.
