SciGames chief hopeful of online progress
A. Lorne Weil says December's Wire Act clarification "could provide substantial growth opportunities for industry".
Scientific Games chief executive A. Lorne Weil revealed that the Nasdaq-listed company is in talks with its customers about how best to take advantage of online opportunities.
He explained that the company is “expanding [its] portfolio of internet solutions and content to better meet [its] customers’ needs”, with the intention of taking advantage of December’s Department of Justice opinion on the Wire Act.
“We believe the Department of Justice’s recent opinion…could provide substantial growth opportunities for the industry in the years to come,” added Weil.
The Illinois Lottery, one of the two bodies whose inquiries prompted the DoJ opinion, is managed by SciGames under the terms of its Northstar Lottery Group joint venture.
Last month saw Scientific Games restructure its SciPlay deal with Playtech, remodelling it as a non-exclusive strategic partnership rather than an exclusive joint venture, although the American company clarified that Playtech would continue to supply it with software for a number of its US casino and lottery customers.
Weil was speaking at the company’s fourth-quarter results, where it recorded revenues of US$239.1m, a 12.7% increase on Q4 2010.
Scientific Games’ full-year results – the first since its acquisition of gaming machines supplier Barcrest in September – showed a 42.7% year-on-year increase in operating profit to $83.8m.
Full-year revenues were relatively flat, although when the Scientific Games Racing business – sold to Sportech in October 2010 – is stripped out, revenues for 2011 are up 10% to $878.7m.
CFO and senior vice president Jeffrey S. Lipkin said: “While the acquisition of Barcrest and our ongoing investments in our growth initiatives impacted our profitability this quarter, we anticipate capitalizing on these investments in 2012 and beyond…”