Robert Heller is co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Gaming Capital. Mr. Heller has over 40 years’ experience in investment banking for land-based and digital companies and resort development. Heller has initiated and completed over $50 billion in debt and equity financings.
Heller joined Spectrum from UBS Investment Bank where he was responsible for coordinating the bank’s gaming franchise globally. Previously, he was founder of Heller Gaming & Leisure, a boutique investment banking and advisory firm specializing in casinos, hotels and resorts, operating since 2003. As part of his efforts there, from 2004 to 2006, Heller was founding President and CFO of Bahamar Resorts, Ltd., owner of the Cable Beach Resort in Nassau, Bahamas, a 2,000 room, three-hotel, golf resort complex with the Caribbean’s second largest casino. Bahamar evolved into a $3bn redevelopment project of a 1,000-acre assemblage that opened in 2017. Heller coordinated the Bahamar project at its onset including land assemblage, hotel acquisitions, operations, strategy government negotiations, pre-development, arranged joint ventures, and raised almost $500 million in initial financings. Other notable work at Heller Gaming & Leisure was restructuring advisory work for institutional investor clients including Harbinger Capital and the Committee of Independent Lenders to Station Casinos.
Heller spent 23 years in bulge-bracket investment banking, having established and managed teams as a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, and at Salomon Brothers. Notable past transactions include the merger of Penn National and Hollywood Casino Corp., the sale of Caesars World Resorts, construction financing for the Borgata, the initial public offering for Vail Resorts, development financings for Mohegan Sun and Isle of Capri, the sales of Breckenridge and Steamboat ski resorts, the first commercial paper offering for Foxwoods, and the first public project financing for a riverboat casino (Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL).
Heller is a graduate of the City University of New York and began his career as a CPA with Price Waterhouse & Company. He is a frequent speaker at global industry events and has made presentations at gaming, lottery, sports and Esports industry conferences throughout North and South America and in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Heller is a former board member of London Exchange listed Dolphin Capital Investors where he chaired the Finance Committee and sat on the Audit Committee. He was also a director of the American Gaming Association; and has lectured at the NYU Real Estate Institute and at the Cornell Hotel School.