For decades, Scientific Games Corporation has resided near the top of the slot market, building up a deep product library serving nearly every aspect of casino operations.

That history of success, however, does not preclude improvement, renewal or even a transformation in corporate culture.

That is the mindset of Matt Wilson, who took over as CEO of the Gaming Division at Scientific Games in March this year, after leaving his former longtime company, Aristocrat Technologies in June of last year.

In his 16 years at Aristocrat, where he completed his stint last year as president of the Americas, Wilson oversaw a transformation of that company’s North American business under former CEO Jamie Odell—a transformation that saw Aristocrat beef up its R&D with the top game designers in the business, move toward a gaming operations model with some of the most high-profile brands in the business, and inch further toward the top of the slot market.

Wilson now plans similar success at Scientific Games, which had courted the executive under advice from that same Jamie Odell, who had been working as an adviser to SG CEO Barry Cottle for the last 15 months. Just recently, it was announced that Jamie Odell and former Aristocrat Chief Financial Officer Toni Korsanos will become the new executive chairman and executive vice chairman, respectively, a result of the recent acquisition of Ron Perelman’s shares in SG by a number of long-term institutional investors, including the highly credentialed gaming industry investor Caledonia.

“We’re really focused on four key areas of transformation for the organization,” Wilson says of his plans to move Scientific Games forward. “First, as any great gaming supplier, you rise or fall on the strength of your product, so we are focused on developing best-in-class products and solutions for our customers across our portfolio.

“We’ve hired Rich Schneider, who was the chief product officer for Aristocrat the last eight years, to join us and lead the R&D organization here,” he says.

While Schneider is waiting out his non-compete until next year, Wilson and his leadership team are working hard to build a talented team at Scientific Games, complementing the existing talent at SG with some key external hires.

“We believe in building a positive, people-centric culture driven by a core set of values,” Wilson says. “It’s really a fundamental part of our long-term strategy. Successful organizations are built by great teams that attract and retain high-performing talent through an engaging culture, and that’s what we aspire to create at SG.”

The third and fourth pillars are commercial execution and operational efficiency, he says—“the teams executing well across our value chain to create a great customer experience, and then focusing on operational efficiency, which is about making sure we deliver on time and on schedule.

“Those four pillars are what’s going to drive the transformation at Scientific Games.”

Wilson says he was attracted to Scientific Games because of the diversity of the product portfolio. “Scientific Games maintains a unique position in our industry; no other supplier has the breadth of our portfolio,” he says. “For a casino customer, anything they want to buy from a gaming standpoint, they can likely buy it from Scientific Games. We sell slot machines, lease games, table games, shufflers, iGaming, sports betting, systems, cashless solutions… That’s the end-to-end opportunity for us to create value for our customers.

“For operators, they are looking for great product across all those verticals, and consolidating their spend with Scientific Games can create value for them.”