Light & Wonder names interim leader as SciPlay CEO Departs

Newsdesk

18 September 2026 at 7:38am UTC-4

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Light & Wonder has confirmed that Josh Wilson will step down as CEO of SciPlay, its social casino division, once his current contract term concludes on 30 October.

The Las Vegas-based operator announced the move in a statement this week, noting that Wilson will remain in place through that date to help ensure a smooth handover.

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Starting 1 November, Oliver Chow, who currently serves as Light & Wonder’s Chief Financial Officer, will take on executive oversight of SciPlay while continuing in his CFO position.

Chow will work alongside SciPlay’s existing leadership team, which will keep managing day-to-day operations until a permanent successor is named. The company said a search for Wilson’s replacement is already underway.

Light & Wonder emphasized that SciPlay will continue to operate as a distinct reporting segment, with no changes planned to its social casino strategy or brand portfolio.

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President and CEO Matt Wilson thanked Josh Wilson for his contributions, pointing to more than two decades of work that included guiding SciPlay through its initial public offering and building out its slate of social casino titles. Matt Wilson added that the company is taking time to find the right long-term leader, while expressing continued confidence in the social casino category and in SciPlay’s opportunities in the direct-to-consumer space.

The announcement comes as Light & Wonder continues to report steady quarterly growth across its business segments in 2026, according to the company’s most recent earnings disclosures.

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The Backstory

A leadership change inside a steady growth story

Light & Wonder’s decision to put Chief Financial Officer Oliver Chow in temporary charge of SciPlay comes at a sensitive point for one of the company’s three core businesses. The Las Vegas supplier has spent the past several years recasting itself as a cross-platform games company, with land-based gaming, igaming and social casino all expected to reinforce the same content pipeline. SciPlay, its social casino division, has been central to that strategy because it gives Light & Wonder a large free-to-play audience, data on player engagement and a direct-to-consumer channel that can sit alongside regulated gambling operations.

The pending departure of Josh Wilson, who is due to step down when his contract ends Oct. 30, does not appear to signal a strategic break. The company said SciPlay will remain a distinct reporting segment and that its existing management will continue to run day-to-day operations while a successor is sought. Still, Chow’s interim oversight puts finance and capital discipline closer to SciPlay at a time when the division’s revenue has been under pressure even as profitability has improved.

Record 2024 set the bar higher

The transition follows a year in which Light & Wonder reported its strongest annual revenue performance to date. The company generated $3.2 billion in consolidated revenue in 2024, up 10%, driven mainly by gains in gaming machine sales in North America and Australia. Gaming revenue rose 12% to $2.1 billion, while operating income increased 29% and adjusted earnings also advanced.

That performance gave management room to emphasize the benefits of a unified content strategy. The company pointed to research and development, studio expansion and broader distribution as reasons for its stronger land-based position. It also highlighted the strategic value of expanding across regulated channels, including through acquisitions and a larger content library.

SciPlay contributed $821 million of revenue in 2024, up 6% from the prior year, according to Light & Wonder’s record full-year revenue report. Direct-to-consumer revenue represented 11% of SciPlay’s total, a metric that matters because social casino operators have been trying to reduce reliance on app stores and improve margins by steering players toward owned payment channels. The 2024 numbers framed SciPlay as a durable contributor, but they also created a tougher comparison for 2025.

SciPlay’s momentum cooled in 2025

By the first quarter of 2025, Light & Wonder was still reporting growth at the group level, but SciPlay had begun to lag. The company posted its 16th consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with gaming revenue up 4% to $495 million and igaming revenue also rising. SciPlay, however, reported a 2% year-over-year decline to $202 million, underscoring a divergence between the company’s land-based and digital real-money units and its social casino arm.

Chow, in his CFO capacity, used the quarter to emphasize cash flow, share repurchases and business optimization. His comments in the first-quarter revenue update focused on streamlining, margin enhancement and staying adaptable in a changing market. Those themes now carry added weight as he assumes executive oversight of SciPlay during the CEO search.

The second quarter reinforced the same pattern. Light & Wonder’s igaming division increased revenue 9% to $81 million and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 17%. Consolidated revenue slipped 1% to $809 million, but net income climbed 16% and consolidated AEBITDA improved. SciPlay revenue fell 2% to $200 million in the quarter and declined to $402 million for the first half, though its AEBITDA increased in both periods, according to the company’s second-quarter results. The mix suggested SciPlay was becoming more efficient even as top-line growth became harder to sustain.

A tougher social casino market

SciPlay’s slowdown also reflects broader conditions in social casino, where growth has become harder to capture and competition has shifted. An August investor note from Jefferies Equity Research analyst Kai Erman described the overall social casino market as challenged, with Aristocrat Leisure’s Product Madness outperforming and Light & Wonder’s SciPlay roughly flat aside from weakness in one key title.

Erman said SciPlay had been dragged down by a sharp decline in Jackpot Party, while other titles, including 88 Fortunes Slots Casino Games, helped offset some of the weakness. The analysis described SciPlay as still performing better than much of the rest of the market, but behind Aristocrat’s momentum, especially from Lightning Link Casino Slots. Those details matter because social casino businesses rely heavily on a small number of enduring franchises, and a decline in one major title can outweigh gains elsewhere.

The Jefferies note, summarized in coverage of Aristocrat’s social casino outperformance, also pointed to emerging pressure from sweepstakes games and the longer-term possibility that broader U.S. igaming legalization could divert some player demand. For Light & Wonder, that creates a dual challenge: maintaining SciPlay’s social casino audience while using the broader group’s content and regulated-market expertise to capture growth elsewhere.

Digital expansion adds context to the handover

Light & Wonder’s broader digital strategy has been expanding beyond mature U.S. and European markets. The company has moved into newly regulated or emerging jurisdictions, including Brazil and the Philippines, while assessing opportunities in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. That effort is led by Magdalena Podhorska-Okolow, vice president of new markets and sales, who has described the company’s approach as learning quickly, adapting locally and avoiding the assumption that products successful in one channel will automatically transfer to another.

That experience is relevant to SciPlay because it shows the limits of a simple omnichannel thesis. In the Philippines, Light & Wonder entered digital gambling after building deep relationships with land-based casinos and integrated resorts. The company initially expected that recognizable casino content would travel naturally online, but found that many online players lived far from casinos and had little attachment to land-based brands. The lesson, outlined in a detailed look at Light & Wonder’s new-markets strategy, was that player behavior, regulation and distribution can vary sharply even within the same country.

Brazil delivered a similar message. Light & Wonder entered the regulated market early in 2025, but later acknowledged that local operators, multiple platforms and brand structures required deeper market mapping than a standard launch playbook. The company has since increased local investment and worked to build brand presence. These international efforts are separate from SciPlay’s social casino operation, but they share a common requirement: leadership that can interpret player data, localize content and allocate capital carefully.

The stakes for the next SciPlay chief

The next SciPlay leader will inherit a business with scale, recognizable titles and improving earnings, but also one facing slower revenue growth and a less forgiving market. Light & Wonder’s decision to have Chow oversee the segment on an interim basis suggests continuity, but also a focus on execution while the company decides what kind of leadership profile SciPlay needs next.

The choice will matter beyond the social casino division. SciPlay remains part of Light & Wonder’s claim that it can build games once and distribute them across multiple channels, from casino floors to mobile apps and regulated online markets. If the company can stabilize SciPlay revenue while continuing to grow igaming and land-based gaming, the division can remain a cash-generating pillar. If not, investors may view it as the weak link in an otherwise expanding portfolio.

For now, the handover is being framed as orderly. But it comes after several quarters that showed the same underlying pattern: Light & Wonder’s overall business is growing, its igaming unit is gaining traction and SciPlay is being asked to defend its position in a tougher category. That is the backdrop against which the company’s CEO search will be judged.