CLAIMS TO FAME
- Spent eight years as CEO of industry rival Aristocrat
- Oversaw Light & Wonder’s 2021 demerger and 2023 secondary listing
It’s been an eventful four years for Jamie Odell, the former Aristocrat CEO who joined Light & Wonder’s predecessor Scientific Games as Executive Chairman in September 2020. Since then, he has overseen a demerger from the company’s lottery and sports betting businesses, a move which ultimately resulted in the new gaming-focused entity enjoying a significant reduction in formerly-crippling debt, and a bold change of name to Light & Wonder.
He also appointed a former Aristocrat colleague, Matt Wilson, as the company’s CEO, and together they have helped cement Light & Wonder’s position as one of the preeminent gaming suppliers in the world.
With a high-profile publicly-stated goal to achieve annual EBITDA of US$1.4 billion by the end of 2025, Light & Wonder is one of the big guns in Europe and APAC, and boasts similar market share to its main rival – also Aristocrat – in the key Asian markets of Macau and the Philippines.
There have been setbacks too. In September the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada granted Aristocrat a preliminary injunction preventing Light & Wonder from “any continued or planned sale, leasing, or other commercialization” of its hit game Dragon Train amid allegations it had misappropriated the former’s intellectual property. A reworking of Dragon Train’s math model is in the works.
But Light & Wonder remains very much on a growth path under Odell’s watch, having completed a successful secondary listing on the ASX in mid-2023 and continuing to expand its Asian presence. It seems the best is yet to come.
For the full list of 2024 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
