Former IGT executive merges his new business with Bally

A former International Game Technology executive, who left the slot machine giant 20 months ago to form his own game design studio, has merged his Reno-based business with Bally Technologies.

The company announced Tuesday that Randy Hedrick will join Las Vegas-based Bally this month as vice president of development. Five of Hedrick's employees at Aurora Design will join him at Bally.

Hedrick served as the senior vice president of labs for IGT, and left to form a gaming technology and slot machine design studio.

Hedrick and the former Aurora Design staff will focus on projects outside of mainstream product development in support of Bally's Innovation Lab.