UOPX alumni spotlight: Jeremy Bartley

From the get-go, Jeremy Bartley (BSB, 2025) learned the value of hard work. Growing up, he saw his parents work multiple jobs, often at the same time, just to make ends meet.

He also learned the importance of education. Bartley’s mother struggled with severe dyslexia and stopped school in eighth grade. His father left school in 10th grade to take care of his seven siblings. He insisted Bartley’s fate would be different, that his son would finish school. Bartley did but nonetheless found himself in the same situation as his parents. Working for a major big-box retailer, he says he’d put in 80 to 100 hours a week. “I wish I was kidding,” he says of that time, “but I’m not.”

When his father became ill and Bartley began battling burnout, he knew something needed to change. Here’s how he exceeded his father’s expectations and fulfilled his own. 

Bartley may have come from a home where money was short and the working day was long, but he was a gifted student. He recalls surprising his grandmother one day when he started reading the street signs out loud. He was 3 or 4 years old, he says.

His strong reading skills led to his placement in a gifted program, and he progressed through school. In high school, he discovered a passion for both economics and broadcasting. (The latter offered the opportunity to work on the oldest high school-student-run radio station in the world.) He decided to become a stockbroker, which meant the next step was going to college. After graduating, he enrolled in a state university. He seemed to be on his way.

Bartley liked college. He liked the campus, he liked the experience — and it seemed college liked him back. “Grade-wise, I did much better in college than I did in high school — or middle school for that matter,” he says.

Bartley soon realized, however, that finishing his degree would mean more loans and more debt. His parents couldn’t help at all; everything he needed to pursue his education had to be borrowed.

“I was tired of working almost full-time hours and going to school 18 hours,” he says. “So, I decided that it was time to come home and just start taking jobs.”

Bartley paid off his student loans and went straight into retail management. It wasn’t quite the stockbroker career he envisioned, but he was good at it, and he stayed in the role for the next 20 years. He worked for multiple household names in retail and in the casino industry. Later, he ran a pawnshop and e-commerce sites.

Yet, even as he plowed ahead at work, Bartley had a nagging sense that something was missing. He had the experience, but he was missing the education. Things came to a head when his burnout coincided with personal losses.

“You get married, you get divorced, and then you realize what’s important,” says Bartley. “I just stepped back and looked at myself and was like, ‘I can’t keep working like this and putting myself through this kind of pace because I will end up very unhealthy and very sick.’”

Bartley took a position at a small grocery retailer and spent time caring for his father, who had become ill. The slower pace at work allowed him to focus on his family, but it lacked growth potential. “I wasn’t really going anywhere,” he says.

Finally, he was ready to finish what he’d started all those years ago and close the gap on experience and education. He took a position at Caesars, where he’d have both flexibility and opportunity. 

Bartley found himself on the fast track at Caesars, thanks to his experience. He was hired full time in his first month, and soon promoted to a supervisory position.   

When Caesars announced it was opening a sportsbook, Bartley saw it as the perfect opportunity. Never mind there were 40 other candidates who’d been with the company longer. Bartley went for it and landed the role.

Ever since, Bartley has been teaching, training, mentoring and running Midwest operations at Caesars Digital.

Happy at work for the first time in a long time, Bartley started thinking about his future in the sports gaming industry. He realized how the field was evolving with the advent of online gaming and wanted to give himself a competitive edge.

Caesars’ tuition benefit with University of Phoenix made this desire an accessible reality. 

James Allen, Bartley’s manager for the last five years at Caesars and the digital director of Midwest retail operations, wasn’t surprised when Bartley decided to go for his degree.

As Bartley undertook this goal, he had family in his corner to both inspire and hold him accountable. He wanted to be the first in his family to earn a college degree, but more than that, he saw an opportunity to achieve a full-circle moment. Bartley’s daughter has severe dyslexia like his mother, he says, and he sought to demonstrate what’s possible with that work ethic his own parents modeled for him.

“I wanted to show her that I work 40 to 50 hours a week,” he says. “I still go home every night. I do my homework. I work. I read. It can be done. You just have to apply yourself.”  

His wife, meanwhile, urged him to finish what he started. They talked, and Bartley recalls saying, “We’re not going to do it halfway. If I’m going to start this at University of Phoenix, I’m going to finish at University of Phoenix, and I’m going to push through.”

Some of that pushing involved facing dreaded math courses and sacrificing weekends. “I would take a whole weekend, and I would get my homework done,” he says.

That sometimes meant opting out of family activities, and sometimes it meant prioritizing them. Setting priorities, in fact, was the key to juggling the three most important commitments in Bartley’s life — family, work and school — and they took turns for first place.

“Time management became a very important skill to learn,” he says. “I realized that this isn’t anything different from having a job. It’s about working it into life.”

Bartley’s organizational and research skills yielded other benefits as well. After some online research, he located the course guides for his previous college work all those years ago and used them to transfer credits toward his degree at University of Phoenix. “It wasn’t too difficult. Once I had all that information, I brought over about 33 credits,” he says.

Thanks to transferring credits and tackling some prerequisites through self-paced, alternative credit providers, Bartley graduated summa cum laude in just under two years. He also achieved a certificate in human resources that has given him insight into the intricacies of the union and nonunion aspects of his field.

As to what comes next, Bartley is content to stay put for the time being. “After finishing up the degree and pushing really hard for a while, I’m sort of decompressing for a little bit,” he says. He ultimately sees teaching and training in his future.

One thing is certain, whatever Bartley decides, he’ll use that work ethic of his to go all in and achieve his goals.

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