Lee Fenton is stepping down as CEO of Bally Bet parent Bally’s as the organization focuses on “unacceptable” online results in North America.
Robeson Reeves, the current president of Bally’s Interactive, will take over as CEO on March 31, the company announced Monday. Fenton is also stepping down from his spot on Bally’s board of directors. Both Fenton and Reeves joined Bally’s in October 2021 when the company finished its more than $2 billion acquisition of Gamesys. Reeves was COO of Gamesys at the time of the acquisition.
Fenton recently took responsibility for over-hiring in the interactive division. Bally’s announced in January it would lay off up to 15% of the interactive workforce.
Bally Bet, iGaming getting ‘deep dive’
Reeves did not hold back in discussing results for online casino and sports betting: “Simply put, our North America Interactive results in 2022 were unacceptable. In response, through our announced restructuring plan of the Interactive business in January, we are taking a deep dive in our approach to North America to ensure that investments we make in sports have a near-term path to profitability.In iCasino states, we continue to take share in New Jersey and Ontario as we integrate this business in a scalable way.”
Bally’s preliminarily reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $5.9 million for North American interactive in the fourth quarter, which is an improvement from the $8.3 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2021.
For the year, though, the North American segment had a negative adjusted EBITDA of $65.7 million. That is more than five times the $12.4 million loss reported for 2021. Bally’s waited to invest significantly in the Bally Bet brand until the 2.0 platform launched last year.
Big impairment charges concerning BallyBet
While other competitors are talking profitability for their betting and iGaming segments this year, Bally’s is not there just yet. The company expects an adjusted EBITDA loss between $40 million and $50 million in 2023.
Bally’s spent more than $3 billion building out its interactive offering, but it is starting to write off some of those investments. The company reported $464 million in non-cash impairment charges in the fourth quarter, all of which were attributed to Interactive.
