From London to The Desert and Back
Gila River Resorts and Casinos, located in the Valley of the Sun around Phoenix, are unlikely locations for a strategic partnership with the Hippodrome Casino from London, England.
In this edition of “How It’s Done,” we will explore how a regional Arizona casino company developed an international program that shares VIP players from the Hippodrome and Gila River Resorts and Casinos.
Gila River Resorts and Casinos — Wild Horse Pass, Lone Butte, Vee Quiva, and Santan Mountain — are four casinos in the greater Phoenix area. Two are resorts: the flagship property, Wild Horse Pass, with 442 guest rooms, and Vee Quiva, with 90 guest rooms. Gila River Resorts and Casinos has 4,800 slots operating at all casinos.
David Baggerly, corporate director of player development and responsible for player development at all four casinos, explained how international shared player development programs can grow relationships and revenue for both casinos, no matter how far apart.
I asked David Baggerly to tell me the story.
USA PD OOSA
“So, basically, it’s called the USA PD OOSA, Out of State Arrivals Program, and in July of 2021 the president and CMO of Gila River Resort and Casinos, Dominic Orozco, came to me and said, ‘Dave, I’d like us to start an out-of-state arrivals program, so get yourself an American Express card.’
“I have quite a few contacts with people across the United States, and I recently hired an executive host who had a book from Chicago. I said, ‘Okay, sure, let’s do it.’ So, with that said, in September of 2021, we had our first arrival. He was a Korean gentleman from Chicago who we flew in, and we just started. We had a successful weekend, and everything worked out well. He was the first one that we ever bought an airline ticket for, and I still have a record of that in the database.”
High Value
From this low-key beginning, Baggerly and his team began mining their own database for out-of-state visitors with a high value.
“In the Phoenix metro area, we have a lot of people from out-of-state that visit, and every week we started checking our own database and began mapping folks with an out-of-state address and a certain theoretical. We started farming those out to the hosts, and no one in the market was doing this. We were the first ones. In fact, we still do this program now six years later.
“We were just shocked that we had this resource right in our own database, and we started cultivating that,” Baggerly declared.
The Phoenix area is famous for beautiful weather that attracts winter visitors, second homeowners, and tourism. Baggerly also told me that the Phoenix market now has no downtime.
“What’s happened over the last few years is the summer business is really busy here as well; we don’t have a slow time anymore. In fact, we used to go dark in August with our events because we said there’s nobody here, and so two years ago we threw an event in August, and it was the biggest Saturday we had in the month,” Baggerly said.
Crown Jewel
“The crown jewel of that program in 2023 was to bring a group from the Hippodrome in London. There are a couple of pieces to that. What actually happened was a group of the executives from the Hippodrome was at a training conference in Tahoe, and some of my colleagues were at that conference and obtained the name of my counterpart at the Hippodrome Casino in London, and she shared the information with me. I blindly reached out and introduced myself. We started having conversations at the end of 2023. In October of 2024 we hosted our first group from the Hippodrome in London,” Baggerly said.
British Accents Singing Country
“The Hippodrome was having their 12th anniversary celebration. I flew out for that celebration to meet the players. We actually had a cocktail party, and I took some swag from our casino and put together a PowerPoint of all of our properties and showed that at the event that they hosted. They let me have my own event with their top players at the rooftop bar in London. It was amazing. They hired a country music band. It was hilarious. You should have heard them. They had British accents singing country music.”
Single Zero
Baggerly spoke to the Hippodrome and related criteria for players to visit Gila River Casinos. They had one unusual request to close the deal, and Baggerly made it happen.
“Single zero roulette is super popular in London, and it’s hard to find here. There might be some in California, at some of the bigger casinos. They requested single zero roulette, and working with our gaming department, we made it happen.
“It was the first single-zero roulette wheel in the state of Arizona. That was one of the deals, and it took me about six months to get it done. If you can only imagine, first of all, ordering the wheel, having it shipped from France. Getting it through the gaming department, getting it through with the state, the whole thing,” Baggerly explained.
Everything You Can Imagine
A group of twenty VIP players from the Hippodrome in London visited Gila River Casinos and toured two properties for seven days. Baggerly packed the seven days with a full agenda.
“You should see the folder I have; it’s this thick. We did everything from hot air balloon rides, desert scapes, dinners, tours, I mean, everything you can imagine,” he said.
From Gila to London
Baggerly then headed to London with twenty of Gila River Casinos’ best players in July. The gaming experience at the Hippodrome is vastly different from the Arizona desert.
“It’s a historic building, and it’s just an amazing property. I visited quite a few of the casinos in London; most of them are card rooms, and they’re smaller.
“The Hippodrome is located right on Leicester Square. So, you come out of the tube at Leicester Square, and Bam, it’s right there in front of you. Millions of people travel there a week. The number of people is ridiculous, but it’s seven stories tall because the only way to go is up in London. They are mainly table games with just eighty slots. In fact, we just returned from our first-ever Gila River player development trip to the Hippodrome in London — it was truly an amazing experience. Several of the players had never been out of the United States before; it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.
One of the fortunate circumstances is that direct flights currently operate from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix to Heathrow in London.
Spread Our Wings
I asked Baggerly what he thought was the future for international partnerships.
“Year to date, we’ve flown in close to 1,000 players from across the United States and Europe.
“I know they have casinos in Germany and obviously, the south of France, so there might be some other connections while I’m in London. I have to be available for those conversations while I’m there and make good use of that visit.
“This kind of market is unlimited right now.
“There’s the whole Asian sector and Australian market, and all those other markets out there. I’d rather stick close with Europe right now because it’s more manageable. I’m just thrilled to have the opportunity to do this, to spread our wings and create this program,” Baggerly said.
