Scientific Games is on a roll with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Rebecca Liggero talks to CEO Gavin Isaacs on the company’s plan to link land-based, online and social gaming.
Scientific Games wants to put the universe—of gambling, at least—at the players’ fingertips.
CEO Gavin Isaacs told CalvinAyre.com the company’s new product, the SG Universe, connects all kinds of gaming so players can start interacting with other players both in and outside the casino.
“We call it SG Universe because effectively, what we see is it’s the link between the land-based, online and the social kind of gaming,” Isaacs explained. “It really does give you the ability to do all of them together, so it does bring the universe together.”
The gaming and lottery technology supplier is on a roll, with the recent Bally acquisition, expansion in the Danish iGaming market and a deal with Fantasy Springs in California. Isaacs said what sets them apart from the big brands is the products that will give players the benefit of in-casino gaming and social games that they can play outside.
“We have the Williams Interactive team, Jackpot Party, Goldfish, and now with the Dragonplay through the Bally, so we do a broad offering in the social space,” he said. “On our system side, we have a social concierge kind of product, so that’s where we’ve started out with Fantasy Springs.”
With real money gaming, Isaacs said the plan is to put everything in a single gaming server and get the players to play.
“What we did with all the content that we got through Bally, through WMS, through Scientific Games, through Shuffle Master, through Backrest, we decided to put the acquisition together, to pick one remote gaming server and really pour all that content into that server, so linking that server to one operator and giving them that huge amount of content,” he said.
Still, Isaacs said the success of the strategy in the U.S. hinges on whether the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) passes or not.
“We’re watching it very carefully, you know. We’re very concerned. The way it’s currently drafted, it’s very restrictive,” Isaacs said. “We just want to make sure that what’s currently happening out there can continue to happen, and you know, lotteries and gaming and everything else, the interactive (gaming) that’s out there can continue in the future.”
