Although the company formerly known as Scientific Games is now Light & Wonder, that does not mean that Scientific Games is no more. Light & Wonder’s lottery unit, under the Scientific name and logo, has been sold to Brookfield Business Partners, in a transaction which closed yesterday. “The transaction allows Scientific Games to focus its attention on providing games, services and technology to the global lottery and lottery-administered sports betting markets,” stated Brookfield, which is keeping Scientific’s headquarters in the greater Atlanta area and planning no changes to the executive roster.
Scientific has been in business 49 years and was sold to Brookfield in late October of last year for $5.8 billion, a transaction that valued the lottery unit at 12 times cash flow. Brookfield, founded in 1899, controls a $690 billion asset portfolio. Its Scientific acquisition has cleared regulatory hurdles in all jurisdictions except Austria, where Brookfield expects approval by June of this year.
“Taking a long-term view of the business, Brookfield is committed to providing Scientific Games with the flexibility and agility necessary to expand our deep product portfolio to expand our deep product portfolio to meet the evolving needs of our customers and their beneficiaries,” said Scientific CEO Pat McHugh, praising his new bosses. “This marks an exciting new chapter for Scientific Games, and positions the company to build on the record growth we achieved in 2021 across all parts of our lottery business.” Although the lottery business was indeed lucrative for what is now Light & Wonder, it was ultimately deemed peripheral to the company’s core mission of making games for casinos and the Internet.
