GGRAsia – Light & Wonder rebrand reflects SG lottery exit: Jolly

Light & Wonder rebrand reflects SG lottery exit: Jolly

Mar 10, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

The rebranding of gaming supplier Scientific Games Corp (SG) as Light & Wonder Inc had a practical element, as the original name was from when it was a lottery services business, and the group was now divesting itself of that segment, noted Ken Jolly, vice president and managing director for Asia, in comments on Wednesday to GGRAsia.

“Scientific Games was essentially a lottery services business that acquired other gaming businesses, but now lottery services is not part of the ongoing business,” he explained.

In October, the Scientific Games entity announced it had agreed to dispose of the lottery segment to a unit of Brookfield Asset Management Inc, for a total consideration of US$6.05 billion. The deal is due to be closed this month, the Scientific Games entity said at the time it announced its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, on March 1.

Asked if the Light & Wonder brand name was an effort to shift the consumer appeal of its games to a younger player market, Mr Jolly told GGRAsia: “It is more a reflection of our identity born from our winning strategy to be the leading cross-platform game company.”

That meant the combination of different distribution channels aside from traditional land-based operations, and crossover between channels.

He added that in his view the name would “inspire our people to make great products for our players,” and reflected the group’s position as the “leading cross-platform global game company”.

On a practical level, the group’s equipment in the land-based segment would only see slight identification changes for the Light & Wonder brand – as appropriate – stated Mr Jolly.

He said: “There are some products that have ‘Scientific Games’ on actual video graphics, when the screen is activated, so they will have to be changed. But it is mostly just about small adjustments.”

Those might include existing small graphics with “SG” in the top corner of a player screen, or branding on a slot cabinet base, including a manufacturer’s plate, said the executive.