The Background Behind Scientific Games
The company is a worldwide operation. It also has major offices in several locations in Europe (such as Barcelona, London and Vienna); Central and Latin America (including Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Santiago); India (Bangalore); Australia (Sydney) and in Macau (a Special Administrative Region within China).
The entire Scientific Games group of companies is responsible for the employment of around 10,000 people worldwide. The majority of these live and work within the United States, although the company has a very large division in India which accounts for well over a thousand employees. Many further worldwide locations operate substantial offices with over a hundred more positions in each.
The company was founded in 1973, but when the substantial heritage of its many acquired subsidiaries is taken into account, it can boast of a history dating back almost a century. This is because it is now a major conglomerate, featuring many other companies and divisions which it has bought over the years. These are also massive organisations in their own right.
One such company is WMS Industries, which can trace its origins as far back as the 1930s, when William Morris began manufacturing pinball machines. He founded the original Williams Manufacturing Company in Chicago in 1943.
But this is just one of numerous major subsidiaries which the Scientific Games Corporation has snapped up over the years. Others include rival American gaming company Bally Technologies, which can itself trace its history back as far as 1968.
More recently, the company acquired the NYX Gaming Group. This takeover cost the company well over $600 million, and included other big name gaming brands such as NextGen Gaming and the sports betting company Open Bet. It is also the owner of the smaller United Kingdom based gaming software development company Barcrest, which it acquired from rivals IGT in 1998.
The company is now a major money making machine, although profits are harder to come by. This is because Scientific Games continues to grapple with a variety of challenges within the industry, and its own administrative and accounting issues. Its year end results for December 2019, the last for which figures are available at the time of writing, show total worldwide revenues of $3.4 billion. This represents a small increase over the previous year. However, despite this seemingly impressive turnover, the company posted a net loss of over $100 million for the period.
Scientific Games and Dragonfish Slots Sites
The majority of the Scientific Games Corporation’s revenues are derived from real world, land based gaming. It is this particular area which has been struggling for revenue growth in recent years. More than half of its total income comes from this sector of the industry, and earnings received from this area have been falling. The current results show a fall in revenue from land based operations of $83 million (about 5%).
These losses are partially offset by improvements in Lottery revenue, which rose by £65 million (around 8%). The Corporation’s online activities are part of the SG Digital division of the conglomerate. These also saw a rise in revenues, of $5 million (around 2%).
For online casino players, the Scientific Games brand is not a major one in the industry. The company does operate a small online gaming design operation, but its focus is on designing cabinet games. Any online releases tend to be conversions from the cabinet format. There are a few Scientific Games branded online slots, but these are few and far between and tend to be legacy games from some time ago.
Today, Scientific Games’ software design function is effectively outsourced to its specialist subsidiaries, which it has acquired for the purpose. Players will therefore need to be on the lookout for new titles from the likes of Ballly, Barcrest and NextGen Gaming, as these are the brands which now produce games for their Scientific Games Corporation owners.
Therefore, to check out the latest Scientific Games releases, look for titles from their wholly owned brands, such as those named above. These will always be available at your chosen Dragonfish bingo or casino site.