Share
Light & Wonder, a game manufacturing company, shut down its live dealer studio in Farmington Hills, which impacts 92 employees. The company submitted a notice to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity on Feb. 25.
Light & Wonder (LNW) offers many slots for Michigan online casinos. However, it got into the live dealer business in 2023 to compete with Evolution Gaming.
The majority of positions affected were game show presenters, which came to 66 in total. Other roles impacted includes managers, trainers and supervisors. The anticipated separation date is set for April 27.
Layoffs had been looming
LNW announced it had performed a “thorough strategic review” for its live casino arm, according to a Q4 earnings call. That led to the company to “discontinue and divest” in that vertical, Bonus.com reported.
At the time, LNW didn’t specify what would happen to the studio, or employees. LNW can now focus on other important parts of the business, CFO Oliver Chow said on the call last month:
“Importantly, in the iGaming business, we are focusing on high-return initiatives with a strong growth trajectory across the industry….
“Our planned divestiture of Live Casino was a decision to allow for the reallocation of resources to other parts of the business, supported by strategic reviews that are conducted consistently across the enterprise to maximize our return on investments.”
Now that LNW is out of the live dealer vertical, it plans to focus on first-person perspective (1PP) content, “great” aggregation, and tools to help operators better monetize.
What the live dealer industry looks like in Michigan
Live dealer games in the Great Lakes State are still a popular. That’s because Evolution Gaming essentially runs a monopoly in the sector.
Evolution Gaming is partnered with some of the largest operators in multiple markets. It has a location in Southfield Michigan, which opened in July 2021. The company also launched Ezugi, another live dealer brand, last October to add more games for Michigan players.
Evolution supplies dozens of live games, which include blackjack, roulette and game shows.
Despite Evolution owning the market, it does have competition from Playtech, another game manufacturing company. Playtech actually opened its live dealer studio first in Southfield back in March 2021.
Playtech offers similar content as Evolution, and is also partnered with key operators. The company can certainly keep Evolution on its toes.
