Scientific Games is abandoning its longtime name and rebranding as Light & Wonder with a “singular focus to be the leading cross-platform global game company” by creating great games and leveraging technology to enable a seamless player experience across all platforms.
The transformation comes after “strategic vision and input from key stakeholders” and represents the company’s enhanced focus on content creation, hardware, and systems that connect iconic titles across any place or channel, whether it be land-based casinos, online and mobile, or 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 Barry Cottle, Scientific Games/Light & Wonder CEO at the company’s recent earnings call. “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.
“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.”
The company will operate under an assumed name its legal name change is complete in spring 2022. At that time, it intends to start trading under a new stock ticker: LNW. It will also migrate to a new website featuring iGaming and land-based casino products, technology, and services: lnw.com.
The Light & Wonder rebrand is the latest prominent strategic move undertaken by the company. The divestiture of its lottery business is expected to close in the coming months, followed by the offload of its sports betting business later in 2022.
In October, the group entered a definitive agreement to sell its lottery business to Canadian private equity company Brookfield Business Partners for US$6.05bn, and also last year, it agreed to divest its sports betting division OpenBet to global talent and media agency holding company Endeavor Group.
The rebrand comes as the firm announced a strong performance during the final quarter of 2021, wherein revenue increased 21 per cent to $580m, its US iGaming business 112 per cent year-on-year, and SciPlay recorded its highest quarter ever. For the year, revenue increased 27 per cent to US$2.15bn, primarily driven by North American gaming operations as well as the continued recovery of the market.