Scientific Games Acquires Australian Slot Developer Lightning Box

Scientific Games Corporation, the famous American provider of gambling products and services, has decided to expand its creative team by acquiring Lightning Box, an innovative digital content studio from Australia.

The two parties did not disclose the financial details of the deal, but Scientific Games did reveal that the purchase was a part of its strategic plan to make the company become a content-led business. Moreover, the acquisition should give the company’s in-house production a significant boost.

Lightning Box was established in 2004 in Australia and the studio forged partnerships with big casino operators in Europe, Canada and the United States. In fact, one can find video slots from Lightning Box in the offering of big online casino brands like BetMGM, Golden Nugget, FanDuel, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Loto Quebec, Unibet, 888, Sky Bet and LeoVegas.

Scientific Games did have a good knowledge of Lightning Box, since the two companies already had a partnership which allowed Lightning Box games to feature across the OpenGaming platform designed by Scientific Games. The Australian studio will continue to develop new games, but now it will have the full range of resources and commercial support from Scientific Games behind it.

Speaking about the acquisition, Dylan Slaney, Senior Vice President of Gaming for Digital at Scientific Games Corporation, revealed that the most exciting part of the deal was “to welcome these talented designers” into the team. The Scientific Games representative added that the company’s strategy is quite simple and transparent: add talented and passionate people to the team, because these people “make great games”.

On the other hand, Peter Causley, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightning Box, said that this move “comes at the perfect time” to push forward their product innovation plans.

The acquisition comes at a moment in which Scientific Games prepares to divest its lottery and sports betting businesses and focus entirely on digital gaming. As part of that plan, the American company explored the possibility of launching a new global lotteries business whose initial public offering (IPO) could take place on the Australian stock exchange. That initial public offering was estimated to be worth around 5 billion Australian dollars.

Source: . Scientific Games press release. August 4, 2021.