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an annual tour stop at Finger Lakes, drawing<br />
large crowds to the inaugural event in February<br />
2009 and again in February 2010 to see the<br />
fast-paced action.<br />
We showed the way<br />
In early 2009, <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> completed its<br />
five-year management engagement and facilitated<br />
a smooth transition for Saratoga Harness Racing,<br />
the parent company of Saratoga Gaming and<br />
Raceway, to assume operational management<br />
of its own facility.<br />
<strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> guided Saratoga through major<br />
expansion projects in 2004, when Saratoga<br />
became the first racetrack video gaming facility<br />
in the state of New York, and again in 2007,<br />
when it added more gaming, hospitality and<br />
entertainment amenities.<br />
“We are very proud of what we have accomplished<br />
by working closely with Saratoga Harness Racing<br />
every step of the way,” said William Bissett,<br />
president of <strong>Delaware</strong> <strong>North</strong> Companies<br />
Gaming & Entertainment. “We demonstrated<br />
how to collaborate with the ownership and<br />
operator of the racing side to run an effective<br />
entertainment destination.”<br />
The two companies are still working together<br />
on potential new gaming venues and to build<br />
Gideon Putnam Resort’s reputation as the<br />
premier historic hotel and spa in New York’s<br />
capital region.<br />
Southland Park gets busy…and lucky<br />
By all accounts, competitors’ casinos in<br />
Tunica, Miss., were losing patrons amid<br />
2009’s challenging economy. But only an<br />
hour away in West Memphis, Ark., <strong>Delaware</strong><br />
<strong>North</strong>’s Southland Park Gaming & Racing<br />
was bucking the trend to the point of seeing<br />
its business increase.<br />
Southland Park successfully expanded its<br />
customer base in Arkansas and the Memphis<br />
area by continuing to enhance itself as a night-<br />
out destination, adding a new steakhouse and<br />
simulcast center that are the crowning touches<br />
on a multiyear, multimillion-dollar expansion.<br />
“Southland’s transformation from a sleepy<br />
greyhound racing venue into a multipurpose<br />
entertainment facility has helped it thrive at a<br />
time when other gaming-based operations are<br />
struggling,” the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote<br />
in January 2009.<br />
Getting the word out that Southland Park<br />
now offers gaming and great entertainment in<br />
addition to racing was a key part of that success.<br />
It continued to reach the Memphis audience with<br />
its creative – and some might say provocative –<br />
advertising campaign. The “Be Lucky That Way”<br />
billboard campaign was a finalist for Best Outdoor<br />
Advertising Campaign in 2008 at the Voice<br />
Awards in Las Vegas.<br />
Southland Park worked with Memphis-based<br />
advertising firm CS2 on the campaign. The<br />
campaign used humor and 1950s-era characters<br />
to promote the venue’s gaming offerings,<br />
including electronic poker and blackjack.<br />
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