“ Cross-channel was always at the center of our thinking . And we ’ re really just scratching the surface . There ’ s a lot more we can do , and we aim to demonstrate that over time .”
— Siobhan Lane , Chief Executive Officer of Gaming , Light & Wonder
Crossing the Channels
Light & Wonder ’ s overall growth can be traced directly to its investment in R & D . “ We have 15-plus land-based studios , across ANZ ( Australia / New Zealand ), India , the U . K . and North America ,” says Nathan Drane , chief product officer of gaming at L & W . “ The reason I say ‘ 15-plus ’ is that we ’ re growing as we speak .”
The most recent additions include a New Zealand studio , a Sydneybased studio under developer Emma Charles and a Las Vegas studio under veteran game creator Ted Hase . According to Drane , L & W ’ s studio team was recently augmented by additional veteran talent , including Kelsy Foster , who previously headed content studios at IGT for more than 20 years . L & W is building out a studio in Reno to be headed by Foster .
“ We ’ re proud of not only adding studios , but also investing in the existing studio network that we have ,” says Drane , “ and that ’ s manifested itself in a few different ways . One is growing our studios to support new markets . We were one of the first to enter the historical horse racing ( HHR ) market .
“ We don ’ t do that lightly . When we enter a new market , we make sure we have dedicated resources to support that . We ’ ve been growing the resources around areas like HHR , VLT , and even the ANZ market . It ’ s highly important that we continue to grow internal teams as well as add external teams .”
The R & D growth includes the other channels in which L & W operates , notably online , in both for-money and social sites .
“ We have an internal ( digital ) team that ’ s been built up over a number of years ,” Drane says . “ We have a lot of expertise in taking games to iGaming from our land-based portfolio , but also building dedicated games for that market .
“ We have studios in the U . K . and also in Las Vegas , producing both port games and dedicated content . And we ’ ve made a number of strategic acquisitions of studios in the iGaming space — truly proven studios like Lightning Box and Elk Studios that have added depth to our iGaming portfolio and dedicated iGaming content .
“ We have a massive portfolio of products , not only within land-based gaming but also online and social . We really pride ourselves on the scale and diversity of our studios , and the number of products , end to end , that are in our business .”
The content pouring from those studios for land-based placement has one other distinct advantage at L & W — a continuous stream of new hardware . “ What we ’ re most proud of is the diversity we ’ ve seen in the last 12 months across the hardware portfolio , which truly shows the balance and the depth of our roadmap ,” Drane says . “ We ’ ve added two more cabinets already this year , and we keep a constant eye on refreshing the hardware life cycle and making sure we ’ ve got the best games on each cabinet .”
He cites April 2024 as an example , when L & W had five No . 1 performing cabinets in the monthly Eilers-Fantini performance report , “ from dualscreen , through portrait , through stepper ,” adding that the cabinets are logging that high performance in diverse market segments , including VLT , HHR and Class II as well as Class III . “ One of the major benefits of having a diverse portfolio is that we ’ re exposed to a number of markets ,” Drane says . “ They have different growth rates , but that exposure gives us confi-
“ We really pride ourselves on the diversity of our studios , the scale of our studios and the number of products , end to end , that are in our business .”
— Nathan Drane , Senior Vice President , Global Product Management , Light & Wonder
AUGUST 2024 www . ggbmagazine . com 19