Light & Wonder displayed its new branding, differentiating itself from its former Scientific Games moniker, and unveiled what it described as its “new worlds of play” at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention last week.
“This is our first trade show as Light & Wonder in the North American market,” said Siobhan Lane, chief commercial officer for gaming for L&W, the cross-platform global game company that launched a name change on March 1. “A lot has changed in the last year and what was Scientific Games. We’re a whole new company in every way.”
Lane said from the trade show floor that the North American debut was exciting. They surprised people with the choice of the new name that was born from feedback from employees, customers, and stakeholder groups, but people are adapting to it and like it.
“It became obvious that when we were going to divest lottery, where the Scientific Games name originated, it became an opportunity to develop a new name and brand for the organization,” Lane said. “We saw that as an opportunity. We solicited a lot of feedback from our employees and different stakeholders and went into a robust process of developing the brand, the strategy, and the creative identity behind it. It’s something different and that’s intentional. That’s what we were going for.”
At the core, the name and branding come back to the experience for the player, Lane said. L&W’s content, games, and technology enable that experience, she said.
“The light from the games when you walk into a casino floor is everywhere. When you’re playing a game on a mobile device, light emits from the game. The wonder is the wonderment that those games create, the experience for the player. They’re two accessible words that work globally in any market we operate in.”
L&W teams have been out explaining the rebranding and providing the context around it, Lane said. “Any name would have been new and different to everybody, so these things take time.”
For its “booth” at the Indian Gaming Association’s trade show in July in Las Vegas, the company drove in a tractor-trailer that it had been taking to customers to display products during the pandemic and shutdown. L&W had a traditional booth this year.
“One cool thing about our logo is the ‘o’ in Wonder, representing a portal to our new worlds of play,” Lane said. “When our game designers design games, they really think about building new worlds and immersing the player in those worlds. You’ll see a lot of graphics and characters from our games coming out of the portal and our players being able to enter into the portal.”
One of those characters on the wall display was from the Coin Combo franchise. L&W showcased some of the newest hits that will be available across platforms for players, including the Coin Combo franchise that will transcend its land-based success and expand its igaming presence through three new game themes this year: Hurricane Horse, Terrific Tiger, and Carnival Cow. Coin Combo – Marvelous Mouse became the company’s biggest U.S. igaming launch of all time, Lane said.
“We actually now call all of our employees ‘creators,’ because we believe everyone has a role in creating great games and content for our players,” Lane said. “That’s what operators and casinos want, to entertain their players and customers. We believe everyone in the company plays a role, whether directly or indirectly as a creator in developing that experience.”
L&W also showcased two new cabinets, the Kascada Dual Screen on the slot side that went live in mid-March in the U.S. and the Landmark 7000 that will launch later in the second quarter in the North American market. “That’s two new pieces of hardware with great content and brands,” Lane said.
As the newest addition to the Kascada product line, the company says the Kascada Dual Screen takes best-in-class hardware and pairs it with player-favorite brands. On the mechanical-reel side, the Landmark 7000 has features that rendered the mechanical reel an icon, now with today’s modern technology. Created for the higher-denom player, the Landmark 7000 is complemented by its collection of new, on-trend, high-denom content and launches with four titles, all of which will be on the floor this year, Lane said.
On the table side, L&W’s displayed its new cashless solution, AToM, a tabletop ATM that allows players to access additional funds right at their gaming positions without cash handling or game stoppage. Players purchase chips with their debit card and all transactions go directly to drop.
In December, the then-Scientific Games banked on its acquisition of ACS’ cashless table-game solution PlayOn to dramatically expand the usage of the point-of-sale technology and provide a gateway for players to adopt cashless gaming under the rebranded AToM. It’s in several jurisdictions across North America.
“We call it AToM because it’s basically an ATM,” Lane said. “Players can use their debit card at the table to make a withdrawal, so they don’t have to walk to an ATM on the casino floor. They can just do a point-of-sale withdrawal at the table. There’s a lot of buzz around cashless, but this is a pretty seamless, player-intuitive solution for the table segment of the casino floor.”
During the show in Anaheim, L&W debuted its first igaming wide-area progressive (WAP) in North America, delivering next-level player engagement with a player-favorite content roadmap and data-driven math model, Lane said. Jackpot progressives will be available at a number of different levels from game to operator to statewide. First to launch will be the company’s top-performing franchise 88 Fortunes.
“Our igaming content is one part of Light & Wonder’s new strategy,” Lane said. “Igaming is a growing segment in the North American market and we’re uniquely positioned with all of this great content. We can take it to land-based operators and distribute it through igaming channels. And then we have our social channels through SciPlay, which we can also distribute through. You’ll see a lot of same brands and games coming through land-based to igaming and that’s what a lot of our customers and operators are looking for – content that can cross channels as igaming starts to proliferate in their markets.”
The company has diversified and expanded its igaming offering throughout the U.S. and Canada since acquiring Authentic Gaming in 2021. LIVE CASINO will launch later this year, featuring immersive experiences for players that leverage L&W’s boundary-breaking content, Lane said.
The portfolio of titles, including roulette, blackjack, and baccarat, will be streamed directly from a state-of-the-art studio and from the floors of casino resorts, bringing exciting casino experiences to players on desktop and mobile devices, Lane said.
As the trade show featured one of the largest crowds outside of those held by IGA in Vegas, Lane said the industry has been seeing record growth in revenue, and that’s exciting compared to where gaming was two years ago at the start of the pandemic.
“We’re seeing that pent-up demand from players who want to get out and socialize,” Lane said. “We’re seeing some strong signs of recovery in our business. We’re very optimistic for the future.”
