LIGHT & WONDER
In conversation with: Wayne Ellard
Casino International sat down with recently appointed Managing Director EMEA at Light & Wonder, Wayne Ellard.
Casino International: Congratulations on your new position at Light & Wonder. Can you tell us what new duties you’ll be responsible for having moved up from your previous role (Vice President of Product Management)? Wayne Ellard: Thank you. I am honoured that I have been asked to lead the European and African land-based teams as we aim to delight our customers and deliver the best products in the market. I have a great understanding of the power of our products due to my previous role, but now I get to add value in an even wider range of ways. In my new role I am responsible for setting regional
Wayne Ellard
strategy and helping our teams to exceed our customers’ expectations. This involves leading our regional team who have responsibility for commercial activity and all go to market activity, as well as working with many of our global teams to ensure that we deliver for our customer again and again.
CI: Why is now an exciting time to be at L&W? WE: It’s a great time to be at Light & Wonder right now. Over the last 18 months we have reshaped our entire business (divesting our lottery and sports betting divisions) and we are now a focused gaming company. Our ambition is to be the world’s leading cross channel games company and I am personally very excited to be helping to drive that outcome. We’re really starting to see the benefi ts of the changes made over the last 12 months as we start to release some of the products that have been in development. We have spent a lot of time reshaping teams, bringing in additional talent, investing in being creative, and we have really upped the bar on quality. I have always had a strong work ethic and high standards and seeing that refl ected back at me from our colleagues, old and new, gives me high confi dence that we’re going to do great things in 2023 and beyond.
CI: What products should punters and peers be paying attention to right now? WE: We are very fortunate that we have a number of amazing game franchises that have performed tremendously well over a period of many years. In 2023 we are updating some of these game families and adding new features and exciting experiences. DUO FU DUO CAI® GRAND will be a superstar game for our customers this year – it combines the tried and trusted gameplay of the original with modern concepts such as “True Persistence” and classic features like “Hold & Spin” – our initial numbers are incredibly strong and we’re very pleased with how it has launched. We also have new games coming
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through such as JEWEL OF THE DRAGON® and, a game that I really love, HYPERCHARGED™ – I can honestly say that this is the strongest lineup we have had for some time, and I am incredibly proud of the quality we have. I shouldn’t forget our fantastic game cabinet line-up – our customers know and trust the KASCADA® K43 portrait cabinet, and it has delivered very strong results in most European markets. We followed that up with the K27 multiscreen upright cabinet and this has been a global phenomenon, topping the Eilers charts in the US since it launched in April 2022. We are looking forward to launching the SLANT version of the KASCADA cabinet in quarter two of this year. We really benefi t from the power of our portfolio. We’re strong for slots but it doesn’t stop there. Outside of EGM, we’re seeing growth in our tables business with GM Atlas, our latest generation progressive jackpot, as well as our Shuffl eStar and i-Deal plus shuffl ers. The combination of these products allows customers to maximize their security and profi tability on tables. We are also delivering a system project in France that is helping one of our largest customers deliver a true omnichannel experience for their players. There’s just too much to talk about in one article but our sales team are passionate about how we can help our customers and they do a great job in ensuring our customers know what we have to offer.
CI: You have a solid number of years behind you at such companies as Gala Coral and SG; what experiences at these companies have you been able to bring to your time at L&W? WE: I think that spending many years as an operator gives me great perspective on what our customers need in order
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