Calendar-year 2025 is a time of firsts – product-wise – for Light & Wonder Inc in Asia, said Ken Jolly, managing director Asia, in an interview with GGRAsia. He stated it is the first time that seven game studios in total are vying to provide the firm with game content for the region.
The firm is now offering its Obsidian electronic table game (ETG) terminal (pictured) “in stadium or hybrid” format, Mr Jolly said. The new configuration was on display at Light & Wonder’s booth at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2025 casino industry trade show, that took place in Macau earlier this month.
Mr Jolly stated it was the first showing of Obsidian in hybrid or stadium configuration “anywhere in the world”.
He added: “We’re spending a lot of money at all our table products to modernise them… particularly with the side bets… you’re now seeing” in land-based casinos.
That was a reference to the sort of house-edge boosting side bets that are now found in the Asia-Pacific region – and elsewhere – on traditional table versions of games including baccarat.
“We’re also looking at the connectivity of live tables to ETGs, and how our shufflers get involved in that,” as well as “how the jackpot funding across both environments works”, Mr Jolly said.
As evidence of the multi-category offering of Light & Wonder just within its land-based segment, the company presented at G2E Asia 2025 its L&W Engage casino management platform and its L&W Engage AI, said to deliver seamless “loyalty integration and real-time, artificial intelligence-powered insights to personalise marketing and drive smarter decision-making” for casino managements.
Anonymised player facial mapping
In terms of the variety of products and services that Light & Wonder can offer land-based operators, the brand has been advancing its facial-recognition technology for gaming products.
Its facial recognition options for slot machines offer casino operators the possibility of anonymised player facial mapping – via camera technology mounted on the slot machine – and being able to target rewards to the player, even if they are not already registered with the casino. If the player later opts to be become a registered or ‘carded’ customer of the casino, their anonymised facial data can then be linked to their name. The technology can be fitted to slot cabinets of other manufacturers, if the casino operator wishes.
“All our new modules and all our new system products are agnostic,” stated Mr Jolly.
“The old days of when you [the operator] wanted to get a new [management] system because you didn’t like the one you had,” and so had to “spend another US$20 million, we don’t believe in that,” he added.
“We actually believe in putting new tech across your current tech. It just makes more sense for an operator.”
In terms of game content, as of this year Light & Wonder has “more studios building games” for the firm “than ever before,” stated Mr Jolly.
“We now have seven studios bidding for the Asia work. And the reason for that is Asia’s one of the fastest growing regions inside Light & Wonder, so we needed to bring more content to market, and we’ve done that with the slots,” he explained.
A conference panel at G2E Asia 2025 – featuring Mr Jolly and colleagues from other major suppliers – heard that the Asia-Pacific gaming machine market might expand by as much as 20 percent between now and the end of the decade.
In terms of specific slot product on display at G2E Asia 2025, Light & Wonder showcased “Lightning Gongs”. According to the company’s marketing materials, it is an evolution of the firm’s “Thunder Drums” series, and offers four themes: “Lions”; “King”; “Beauty”; and “Fortunes”.
Mr Jolly also noted: “We have Lion Link, which we think is a very strong base game”. The product is not, says the company’s representative, “over featured, but a good package”. That was a reference to ensuring a good balance between core play and features during the player session.
Lion Link is described in the company’s marketing materials as its next-generation link product, featuring the themes “Wealth of the Dragon” and “Prosperous Rooster”, and is said to include the player-appealing maths familiar from the company’s “Money Link” series.
