Scientific Games completes name change to Light & Wonder

The new name, announced at the beginning of March, reflects the Las Vegas company’s greater focus on online gambling.

Light & Wonder will officially start trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “LNW” from Friday 29 April 2022.

The brand said the change is part of “the company’s strategic vision to become the leading cross-platform global game company focused on creating and launching great games fully cross-platform”.

In a press release, the company said that “through a deliberate cross-platform approach, Light & Wonder delivers a leading portfolio of iconic games and franchises across online and mobile and in both real money and free-to-play social gaming markets as well as in land-based casinos.”

Light & Wonder completed a $5.8bn sale of its lottery business to Brookfield in April, worth $5.8bn (£4.4bn/€5.3bn) in gross cash proceeds and approximately $5.0bn in net after-tax cash proceeds.

The sale helped Light & Wonder pay down a significant chunk of its debt, having retired an existing US$4.0 billion term loan this month and redeemed US$3.0 billion in secured and unsecured notes.

In total, outstanding debt has been reduced from US$8.8 billion to US$4.0 billion and the company’s net debt leverage ratio from 6.2x to below 3.9x.

The business also agreed to sell its OpenBet sports betting technology business to Endeavor for $1.20bn.

This comes after the business announced a long-term extension of an agreement with sports betting and gaming company Entain earlier this month as part of its strategic plans for 2022.