Scientific Games

Let us note that what we have known as Scientific Games has rebranded as of 2022, and today is known as Light & Wonder. To find out why the company required a name change and rebranding, we need to look into the history of Scientific Games Corporation.

The story begins in 1973, when the company was established in Las Vegas. Originally a producer of instant lottery equipment (also known as scratch cards), which was very much the main area of interest for the company until the change of the millennia. The company seems to have enjoyed steady success, as the company was bought by Autote in 2000. This in turn was a successful producer of tote equipment, which is basically score and bet boards you see in sports events, betting shops, and so forth. The combination of these two companies carried on under the Scientific Games Corporation name.

A new era begins…

…with quite a few acquisitions. The company’s main area of interest still remained in lottery, betting, sports, and associated equipment. And in this area, they controlled much of the North American markets. Expansions into other market areas followed in the next twenty years, which also drove many of the purchases. The new SG corporation bought the following brands:

• EssNet in 2006
• The Global Draw in 2006
• Barcrest in 2010
• WMS Industries in 2013
• Bally Technologies in 2014
• DEQ Systems 2016
• Spicerack Media in 2017
• NYX Gaming in 2017
• Authentic Gaming in 2021
• Playzido in 2022

This is quite a varied bunch of companies. Some of them are powerhouses in producing online slots, others concentrate on land-based table games. Social gaming was reinforced with several acquisitions, and even live casino gaming and mobile bingo are on the list. It’s pretty clear that the company was rather busy building an online gaming empire.

So what happened? To put it bluntly, this spending spree of purchases put the company around nine billion dollars in the red. A collection of loans that made it impossible for the company to continue its operations in the current form. Why the situation reached this point is unclear. Perhaps it was pure ignorance and ineptitude of the decision-makers, perhaps the expectations of future prospects simply didn’t pan out, or mayhap the loans and interests suffered a rapid rise from changes in the situation around the world.

What happened next led to the rebranding. The company sold off its entire presence in sports betting and in lottery. The first one to Endeavor Group, and the second one to Brookfield Business Partners. What was left was the online gaming business The Scientific Games brand itself belonged to the lottery business, as you might recall us mentioning at the start of this article, and thus the company parted away with its name, and continued as Light & Wonder.

What is Scientific Games Today?

The brand still exists, and in a way, it has returned to its roots. Offering lottery and sports services, mainly in the USA. But the brand as those who knew it from the decades it operated online, with a presence in hundreds of online casinos, is pretty much completely gone. Sure, there are still some digital services, but even those are mainly aimed at supporting retail shops.

The brand remains one of the biggest, if not the biggest, instant game creators. This of course refers to scratch cards and lotteries, around the world. On top of this, they offer terminal games in the form of keno and other fast-paced number games. There’s also a collection of virtual sports titles.

Conclusion

The story behind Scientific Games is an interesting one, and far from over. The truth is, what we know as Scientific Games was just the front, or brand name, that was used to operate a very successful online and land-based gambling operation. And both of these continue to go on, with the former under the Light & Wonder, and the latter continuing the very same business that it started in.

At the end of the day, the thing we can take away from all this is that we are unlikely to see this very brand in online casinos any time soon. The games you have learned to associate with it will still be there though. Check out our interview of Light & Wonder back in 2022 for further information.

External Links:

Homepage

Light & Wonder homepage