Scientific Games becomes Light & Wonder amid focus shift towards digital casino gaming
Scientific Games Corporation on Tuesday confirmed it will now do business as Light & Wonder, Inc., a company that will focus on creating new games and omnichannel player experiences. The rebranding celebration was attended by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. The move comes after Scientific Games sold its lottery and sports betting businesses and bought iGaming and Live Casino studios to focus on content for casinos and online gambling.
Light & Wonder will take a cross-platform approach to bring leading game franchises to players anywhere 24/7 including games in land-based casinos, online and mobile and in both real money and free-to-play social gaming markets.
“We are thrilled to introduce the world to Light & Wonder, a company that will build great games and franchises that offer players a seamless experience across platforms,” said Light & Wonder Chief Executive Officer Barry Cottle. “Our powerful new strategy required a powerful new identity to distinguish us and our unique offerings and capabilities. Our new name and identity are born from our winning strategy to be the leading cross platform game company and will inspire our people to make great products for our players.”
As part of this transformation, the company’s new website featuring iGaming and land-based casino products, technology and services will now be lnw.com. This new portal features games, platforms, systems, player account management and hardware.
Light & Wonder will operate under an assumed name until a legal name change is complete in Spring 2022. At that time, the company intends to start trading under a new stock ticker it has reserved, LNW.
Over the last several months, the company made a series of strategic moves to transform itself into a competitive cross-platform global game company, including planned divestitures of its lottery and sports betting businesses. Scientific Games Corporation announced in October the signing of a definitive agreement to sell SG Lottery to Canadian asset manager Brookfield Business Partners for total consideration of $6.05 billion. In September, it also confirmed a $1.2 billion deal to sell its sports betting business, OpenBet, to Endeavor Group Holdings, a global sports entertainment company.
About two months later, Scientific Games acquired Authentic Gaming, a provider of premium live casino solutions, which marked the company’s first move into the Live Casino market. And the following month, it acquired European games developer ELK Studios to advance SG’s original iGaming content offering and production capabilities, while opening more doors to grow its presence in digital markets.
The new identity, Light & Wonder, is "born out of the company’s strategic vision and input from key stakeholders. It also reflects the company’s focus on creating great content, hardware and systems that connect iconic titles across any place or channel," the company explained in a press release.
"We already have a world-class team powered by the brightest game creators in the business and in transforming into a growth company who invests in our people and products, we will serve our players even better wherever and whenever they play,” added Cottle.