Formed in 1932 to produce pinball and slot machines, Bally Manufacturing is arguably one of the most famous names in the arena of North American location-based entertainment. In the '60s, the company would dominate the slot machine industry, accounting for an incredible 90 per cent of the worldwide market by the time the '70s rolled around.
After dabbling with casinos, the Bally name would become unified with rival Midway, creating the iconic Bally/Midway moniker in '70s and '80s. The company would bring titles like Space Invaders and Pac-Man to the States, and also entered the home console market with the commercially unsuccessful Bally Professional Arcade.
In 1988, the Bally/Midway manufacturing division was acquired by Williams Electronics, which used the brand for pinball games until 1999. Midway was spun off as a separate company in 1998.
Since then, the Bally name has been used in multiple places; for example, there's Bally Technologies, which adopted the Bally name in 2006 after acquiring Bally Gaming International, a former division of Bally Manufacturing.
What's the point of this convoluted history lesson, you might ask? Well, those of you who follow the world's most popular sport may well be aware that the English Premier League season has just kicked off, and, during coverage of the match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford, I couldn't help but notice the name on the front of the former team's shirt: Bally's.
Despite the addition of an 's' at the end of the name, it was unmistakably the famous entertainment brand's logo, which naturally forced me to reach for my phone and do a bit of digging. It turns out that the sponsor in question, Bally's Corporation, is yet another example of the famous name being used outside of the world of pinball, slot machines and video games.
Founded in 2004 as BLB Investors, the American company adopted the Bally's Corporation name in 2020 after purchasing the rights from Caesars Entertainment. It operates in the fields of gambling, betting, and interactive entertainment and joins a growing number of gambling firms adorning the shirts of football teams worldwide.
Bally's agreement with Nottingham Forest is likely to be short-lived, however. The Premier League stated in 2023 that gambling companies will be banned from sponsoring shirts at the end of this current season.