Glenn Huybrecht says gaming technology business Light & Wonder Inc is focused on scaling up the group’s capabilities in Asia, as it seeks to expand in markets across the region. Mr Huybrecht was recently appointed as the group’s vice president and managing director for Asia, with Ken Jolly assuming the role of vice president of strategic development for Asia.
Mr Huybrecht (pictured) has professional experience working in the industrial conglomerate sector as well as in management consultancy, and had joined Light & Wonder in January 2024 as chief operating officer for Asia.
“Light & Wonder Asia has been established as a strong gaming brand in Asia in the last decade under Ken Jolly’s leadership,” stated Mr Huybrecht in an interview with GGRAsia.
“My role definition, however, is quite different in a sense that, historically, Asia has been a recipient of global support [from the group] whereas now our focus is on scaling our footprint and building out capabilities in the region.”
That, he said, included opening new offices with showrooms in Singapore and in Clark, in the Philippines, to create “spokes closer to our key markets”.
“We’re hiring very strong talent to build up our regional skill set in terms of research and development, new game development, product management,” making sure products are “aligned” to “customer needs”, and for marketing, to ensure the company can “launch products appropriately,” he added.
Mr Huybrecht said his path to his current job was “not very typical” in terms of the gaming sector, “but not as foreign as you might think”.
“I started my journey in consulting for six years and then moved to Asia in 2010,” he stated. Mr Huybrecht said he worked “in the strategy and business development team” of industrial conglomerate 3M Company, where he “learned to work with regional operations and sell through distributors in Asian markets for three-and-a-half years”.
After that, he spent “almost eight years” at the professionals-focused social media platform LinkedIn, where he said he built from scratch, a global sales team focused on sale of advertising and software-as-a-service for companies of all sizes.
Mr Huybrecht stated: “If you add up 15 years in Asia, manufacturing, sales leadership and innovation focus, then that fits the Light & Wonder story perfectly.”
In terms of the variety of products and services that the company offers, he noted: “Light & Wonder has evolved into a real omnichannel supplier with more and more touchpoints between land-based [gaming] and iGaming.
“With my background in the tech space and a short stint in crypto, I’m excited about the opportunities that synergy presents.”
Mr Huybrecht said examples of technological developments in the group’s gaming products included “linked omnichannel jackpots, aligned player experiences, embedded AI in our products,” and “digital player IDs”.
He added: “I’ve been fortunate to work on a number of these closely the last few years.”
GGRAsia asked the executive about how the company worked with gaming regulators in terms of addressing the potential of new technology for the casino industry.
He stated: “We’ve found that close engagement with regulators really helps push the boundaries of what is possible for operators and ourselves.
“We should aspire to be thought partners to the governing bodies who are also on a journey to keep their markets safe but at the same time want to bring a level of excitement and uniqueness that other jurisdictions don’t offer,” he explained.
“By opening up our R&D [research and development] efforts and experimenting with new game dynamics and offerings, we can move the needle of the gaming experience in Asia,” he added.
“In Asia, we’re relaunching ourselves into the ETG [electronic table game] space,” noted Mr Huybrecht. “It’s a core product category for us and we’ve just set up a new 45-person R&D studio to create custom content for our market to capture all the right [market-relevant] side bets, custom felts and create new games based on operator demand.
“That’s a big bet for us and we’re excited to see where we can take that,” he added.
