GGRAsia – Echo Ent and its casino venues to rebrand as Star

Echo Ent and its casino venues to rebrand as Star

Aug 28, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Australian casino operator Echo Entertainment Group Ltd is to rebrand itself as The Star Entertainment Group and to rename all its properties under the Star name, the moniker of its current Sydney flagship operation, the firm said in a press announcement on Friday.

The Echo Entertainment branding was created in mid-2011 when parent company Tabcorp Holdings Ltd split its casino and racetrack wagering operations. Echo Entertainment took over management of what was then Star City casino in Sydney – now The Star (pictured) – and Tabcorp’s Queensland casinos: Treasury Casino and Hotel in Brisbane; and Jupiters Hotel and Casino on the Gold Coast.

“…we can, with a single identity, build further brand equity and loyalty. We can be greater than the sum of our individual parts,” said Echo Entertainment’s managing director and chief executive, Matt Bekier, in Friday’s statement heralding the rebranding.

Echo Entertainment currently has a casino monopoly in Sydney, New South Wales – Australia’s largest city – but in a few years will face competition there from domestic rival Crown Resorts Ltd. The latter is due to open its Crown Sydney gaming property in a waterside redevelopment area some time after November 15, 2019.

Echo Entertainment’s chairman John O’Neill said in Friday’s announcement about its rebranding: “The intention is to change the parent company name to The Star Entertainment Group Limited with the properties to be known – via a staged rebranding process – as The Star, Sydney; The Star, Gold Coast; and The Star, Brisbane.”

The Star in Sydney was previously known as Star City, but was rebranded in 2011 as part of a AUD1-billion (US$717.5-million at current prices) revamp of the property.

Friday’s statement didn’t mention what branding would be given to an expected new Echo Entertainment casino resort in the Queen’s Wharf area of the state capital Brisbane.

The Queensland government announced on July 20 that Echo Entertainment has been chosen as “preferred tenderer” to develop such a scheme, which has been flagged as boosting urban redevelopment in a former commercial docks area. The initiative has been described as a AUD2-billion project, likely to open in 2022.

The firm is investing AUD345 million to revamp the Jupiters property on the Gold Coast, which opened in 1985.

Echo Entertainment’s shareholders will be asked to approve the company name change as part of a unified brand strategy when the Australian Securities Exchange-listed group holds its annual general meeting in November. More details of the rebranding are to be made public in November, the firm said in its Friday press release.