UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended: December 31, 2020

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from          to        

Commission file number: 001-11693 

SCIENTIFIC GAMES CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada	81-0422894
(State or other jurisdiction of	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
incorporation or organization)

6601 Bermuda Road, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119

(Address of principal executive offices)

(Zip Code)

(702) 897-7150

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $.001 par value	SGMS	The NASDAQ Stock Market
Preferred Stock Purchase Rights		The NASDAQ Stock Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐   No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer	☒	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☐	Smaller reporting company	☐
Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐   No ☒

As of June 30, 2020, the market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $877,187,305(1).

Common shares outstanding as of February 23, 2021 were 95,389,898.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s proxy statement relating to the 2021 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III. The proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission no later than 120 days after the conclusion of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

(1) For this purpose only, “non-affiliates” excludes directors and executive officers.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I		6
Item 1.	Business	8
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	18
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	48
Item 2.	Properties	48
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	49
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	49
PART II		49
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	49
Item 6.	Selected Financial Data - Not applicable due to early adoption of amendment to S-K 301	51
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	51
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	75
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	76
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	76
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	76
Item 9B.	Other Information	78
PART III		79
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	79
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	79
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	79
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	79
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	79
PART IV		80
Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	80
Item 16	Form 10-K Summary	147

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Glossary of Terms
The following terms or acronyms used in this Form 10-K are defined below:
Term or Acronym	Definition
2021 Notes	6.625% senior subordinated notes due 2021 issued by SGI
2025 Secured Notes	5.000% senior secured notes due 2025 issued by SGI
2026 Secured Euro Notes	3.375% senior secured notes due 2026 issued by SGI
2026 Unsecured Euro Notes	5.500% senior unsecured notes due 2026 issued by SGI
2022 Unsecured Notes	10.000% senior unsecured notes due 2022 issued by SGI
2025 Unsecured Notes	8.625% senior unsecured notes due 2025 issued by SGI
2026 Unsecured Notes	8.250% senior unsecured notes due 2026 issued by SGI
2028 Unsecured Notes	7.000% senior unsecured notes due 2028 issued by SGI
2029 Unsecured Notes	7.250% senior unsecured notes due 2029 issued by SGI
AEBITDA	Adjusted EBITDA, our performance measure of profit or loss for our business segments
ASC	Accounting Standards Codification
ASU	Accounting Standards Update
Bally	Bally Technologies, Inc.
CMS	casino-management system
Coin-in	the amount wagered
COVID-19	Coronavirus disease first identified in 2019 (declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020)
CSG	Beijing CITIC Scientific Games Technology Co., Ltd.
D&A	depreciation, amortization and impairments (excluding goodwill)
ERP	enterprise resource planning
ESPP	employee stock purchase plan
ETS	electronic table system
Exchange Act	Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
FASB	Financial Accounting Standards Board
GDPR	General Data Protection Regulation
GLB	Beijing Guard Libang Technology Co., Ltd.
Hellenic Lotteries	Hellenic Lotteries S.A.
KPIs	Key Performance Indicators
LAP	local-area progressive
LBO	licensed betting office
LIBOR	London Interbank Offered Rate
LNS	Lotterie Nazionali S.r.l.
Net win	Coin-in less payouts
Northstar New Jersey	Northstar New Jersey Lottery Group, LLC
Note	a note in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless otherwise indicated
NOL	net operating loss
Participation	with respect to our Gaming business, refers to gaming machines provided to customers through service or leasing arrangements in which we earn revenues and are paid based on: (1) a percentage of the amount wagered less payouts; (2) fixed daily-fees; (3) a percentage of the amount wagered; or (4) a combination of (2) and (3), and with respect to our Lottery business, refers to a contract or arrangement in which we earn revenues and are paid based on a percentage of retail sales
PASPA	Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act
PMA	private management agreement
POS	percentage of retail sales
PPU	price-per-unit
PTG	proprietary table games
R&D	research and development
RCN	Roberts Communications Network, LLC
RFP	request for proposal
RMG	real-money gaming
RSU	restricted stock unit
SciPlay	SciPlay Corporation, formerly referred to as our Social business segment
SEC	Securities and Exchange Commission

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Secured Notes	refers to the 2025 Secured Notes and 2026 Secured Euro Notes, collectively
Securities Act	Securities Act of 1933, as amended
Senior Notes	the Secured Notes and the Unsecured Notes
SciPlay Revolver	$150 million revolving credit facility agreement entered into by SciPlay Holding Company, LLC, a subsidiary of SciPlay Corporation, that matures in May 2024
SG&A	selling, general and administrative
SGC	Scientific Games Corporation
SGEP	Scientific Games Enhanced Partnership
SGI	Scientific Games International, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGC
SG Gaming	SG Gaming, Inc. (formerly known as Bally Gaming, Inc.)
Shufflers	various models of automatic card shufflers, deck checkers and roulette chip sorters
Unsecured Notes	refers to the 2026 Unsecured Euro Notes, 2026 Unsecured Notes, 2028 Unsecured Notes and 2029 Unsecured Notes, collectively
U.S. GAAP	accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S.
U.S. jurisdictions	the 50 states in the U.S. plus the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
VGT	video gaming terminal
VLT	video lottery terminal
WAP	wide-area progressive
WMS	WMS Industries, Inc.

Intellectual Property Rights

All ® notices signify marks registered in the United States. © 2021 Scientific Games Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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PART I

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we make “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results or strategies and can often be identified by the use of terminology such as “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “continue,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “target,” “should,” “could,” “potential,” “opportunity,” “goal,” or similar terminology. The forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are generally located in the material set forth under the headings “Business,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” but may be found in other locations as well. These statements are based upon management’s current expectations, assumptions and estimates and are not guarantees of timing, future results or performance. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors, including, among other things:

•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and any resulting unfavorable social, political, economic and financial conditions, including the temporary and potentially recurring closure of casinos and lottery operations on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis;

•slow growth of new gaming jurisdictions, slow addition of casinos in existing jurisdictions and declines in the replacement cycle of gaming machines;

•risks relating to foreign operations, including anti-corruption laws, fluctuations in currency rates, restrictions on the payment of dividends from earnings, restrictions on the import of products and financial instability, including the potential impact to our business resulting from the continuing uncertainty following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union (“EU”);

•difficulty predicting what impact, if any, new tariffs imposed by and other trade actions taken by the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions could have on our business;

•U.S. and international economic and industry conditions;

•level of our indebtedness, higher interest rates, availability or adequacy of cash flows and liquidity to satisfy indebtedness, other obligations or future cash needs;

•the discontinuation or replacement of LIBOR, which may adversely affect interest rates;

•inability to reduce or refinance our indebtedness;

•restrictions and covenants in debt agreements, including those that could result in acceleration of the maturity of our indebtedness;

•competition;

•inability to win, retain or renew, or unfavorable revisions of, existing contracts, and the inability to enter into new contracts;

•the impact of U.K. legislation approving the reduction of fixed-odds betting terminals maximum stakes limit on LBO operators, including the related closure of certain LBO shops;

•inability to adapt to, and offer products that keep pace with, evolving technology, including any failure of our investment of significant resources in our R&D efforts;

•changes in demand for our products and services;

•inability to benefit from, and risks associated with, strategic equity investments and relationships;

•inability to achieve some or all of the anticipated benefits of SciPlay being a standalone public company;

•dependence on suppliers and manufacturers;

•SciPlay’s dependence on certain key providers;

•ownership changes and consolidation in the gaming industry;

•fluctuations in our results due to seasonality and other factors;

•security and integrity of our products and systems, including the impact of any security breaches or cyber-attacks;

•protection of our intellectual property, inability to license third-party intellectual property and the intellectual property rights of others;

•reliance on or failures in information technology and other systems;

•litigation and other liabilities relating to our business, including litigation and liabilities relating to our contracts and licenses, our products and systems, our employees (including labor disputes), intellectual property, environmental laws and our strategic relationships;

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•reliance on technological blocking systems;

•challenges or disruptions relating to the implementation of a new global enterprise resource planning system;

•laws and government regulations, both foreign and domestic, including those relating to gaming, data privacy and security, including with respect to the collection, storage, use, transmission and protection of personal information and other consumer data, and environmental laws, and those laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the internet, including online gambling;

•legislative interpretation and enforcement, regulatory perception and regulatory risks with respect to gaming, especially internet wagering, social gaming and sports wagering;

•changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or the examination of our tax positions;

•opposition to legalized gaming or the expansion thereof and potential restrictions on internet wagering;

•significant opposition in some jurisdictions to interactive social gaming, including social casino gaming and how such opposition could lead these jurisdictions to adopt legislation or impose a regulatory framework to govern interactive social gaming or social casino gaming specifically, and how this could result in a prohibition on interactive social gaming or social casino gaming altogether, restrict our ability to advertise our games, or substantially increase our costs to comply with these regulations;

•expectations of shift to regulated online gaming or sports wagering;

•inability to develop successful products and services and capitalize on trends and changes in our industries, including the expansion of internet and other forms of interactive gaming;

•the continuing evolution of the scope of data privacy and security regulations, and our belief that the adoption of increasingly restrictive regulations in this area is likely within the U.S. and other jurisdictions;

•incurrence of restructuring costs;

•goodwill impairment charges including changes in estimates or judgments related to our impairment analysis of goodwill or other intangible assets;

•stock price volatility;

•failure to maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting;

•dependence on key executives

•natural events that disrupt our operations or those of our customers, suppliers or regulators;

•possibility that the 2018 renewal of the LNS concession to operate the Italian instant games lottery is not final (pending appeal against existing court rulings relating to third-party protest against the renewal of the concession); and

•expectations of growth in total consumer spending on social casino gaming.

Additional information regarding risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements is included from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including under Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except for our ongoing obligations under the U.S. federal securities laws, we undertake no and expressly disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

You should also note that this Annual Report on Form 10-K may contain references to industry market data and certain industry forecasts. Industry market data and industry forecasts are obtained from publicly available information and industry publications. Industry publications generally state that the information contained therein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but that the accuracy and completeness of that information is not guaranteed. Although we believe industry information to be accurate, it is not independently verified by us and we do not make any representation as to the accuracy of that information. In general, we believe there is less publicly available information concerning the international gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries than the same industries in the U.S.

Due to rounding, certain numbers presented herein may not precisely agree or add up on a cumulative basis to the totals previously reported.

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ITEM 1.    BUSINESS

Unless otherwise specified or the context otherwise indicates, all references to the words “Scientific Games,” “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” refer to SGC and its consolidated subsidiaries.

General

SGC was incorporated in the state of Delaware on July 2, 1984. On September 18, 2017, SGC entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with SG Nevada Merger Company, a Nevada corporation and SGC’s wholly owned subsidiary (“Newco”), providing for the merger of SGC with and into Newco with Newco surviving the merger (the “Surviving Corporation”), for the sole purpose of changing SGC’s state of incorporation from Delaware to Nevada (the “reincorporation merger”). The reincorporation merger was approved by the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of outstanding shares of Class A common stock of SGC entitled to vote thereon at a special meeting of SGC’s stockholders on November 27, 2017. On January 10, 2018, the reincorporation merger was consummated. Following the consummation of the reincorporation merger, each outstanding share of Class A common stock of SGC, par value $0.01 per share, automatically converted into one share of common stock of the Surviving Corporation, par value $.001 per share. The reincorporation merger did not result in any change in SGC’s name, headquarters, business, management, location of offices, assets, liabilities or net worth, other than as a result of the costs incident to the reincorporation merger. Our management, including all directors and officers, immediately prior to the reincorporation merger remained the same immediately following the reincorporation merger and assumed identical positions with the Surviving Corporation.

We are a leading developer of technology-based products and services and associated content for the worldwide gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries. Our portfolio of revenue-generating activities primarily includes supplying gaming machines and game content, CMSs and table game products and services to licensed gaming entities; providing instant and draw-based lottery products, lottery systems and lottery content and services to lottery operators; providing social casino and other mobile games to retail customers; and providing a comprehensive suite of digital RMG and sports wagering solutions, distribution platforms, content, products and services. We also gain access to technologies and pursue global expansion through strategic acquisitions and equity investments. We report our results of operations in four business segments—Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital—representing our different products and services.

Strategy

We strive to provide high quality products and services to our customers across all four of our business segments—Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital. During the third and fourth quarters of 2020 and as more fully described in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Business Overview”, we reconstituted our board of directors. The reconstituted board of directors has commenced comprehensive review, evaluation and establishment of enhanced strategic and business plans.

To those ends, we are focused on the following strategies:

•Focus on accelerating de-leveraging and improving cash flow from operations — We are actively evaluating all strategic options to accelerate de-leveraging, strengthen our balance sheet and maximize stockholder value. This focus encompasses broad evaluation of our business and product portfolio, current and new markets, prudent fiscal management, working capital management, integrated business planning, and optimization of our supply chain.

•Strengthening a corporate culture and high performance organization— We are creating a culture of high performance organization by building a strong and diverse global team that cultivates open minds and focuses on driving innovation and enabling an efficient and flexible operation that is structured to support our business strategies.

•Drive innovation — We place great emphasis on producing innovative and high-performing Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital content, products and services that provide differentiated value to our customers. We seek to leverage our expansive content library and portfolio of proprietary and licensed intellectual property, and use our extensive player and customer research in order to bring innovation to our products, services and processes.

Gaming Segment

The gaming industry is characterized by the continuous development of new technologies, products and game content. Gaming products and services are used by a diverse group of gaming operators and U.S. and international lotteries which may offer VLTs and other forms of gaming, such as bingo and sports wagering.

Our products are installed in all of the major regulated U.S. gaming jurisdictions, and in approximately 188 international gaming jurisdictions. Growth of gaming in land-based venues is driven by the opening of new casinos in both new and existing jurisdictions and the expansion of existing casinos. In addition, the land-based gaming supply business is

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significantly impacted by the rate at which casinos and other gaming operators replace their gaming machines, which depends on a number of factors, including their capital budgets. Virtually all sectors of the gaming industry are impacted by changes in economic conditions that impact players’ disposable incomes.

A substantial portion of our U.K. gaming business benefits from a contract with the large U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral Group (which was acquired by Entain (formerly GVC Holdings PLC) in March 2018), which represents a significant portion of our U.K. LBO server-based gaming business.

Competition

The gaming machine sector is highly competitive and is characterized by the continuous introduction of new games, gaming machines and related technologies. We compete primarily with Ainsworth Game Technology, Aristocrat Leisure Ltd., (“Aristocrat”), Aruze Gaming America, Inc., Everi Games, Inc., International Game Technology (“IGT”) (a subsidiary of International Game Technology PLC), Inspired Entertainment Inc., Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (“Konami”), the Novomatic Group of Companies and PlayAGS, Inc. (“AGS”). Our principal direct competitor in our U.K. LBO business is Inspired Entertainment Inc.

The CMS business is also highly competitive. Product features and functionality, accuracy, reliability, service level and pricing are among the factors that determine how successful systems providers are in selling their systems. Our principal competitors in CMSs include Aristocrat, IGT and Konami. Competition for these products is intense due to the number of providers and the limited number of casinos and jurisdictions in which they operate.

With respect to our table products, we compete on the basis of the breadth of our Shuffler products and services and PTGs, product reliability, service, the strength of our intellectual property and our extensive sales, regulatory and distribution channels.

Our automated Shufflers also compete against hand shuffling, which remains the most competitive shuffling option for casino card games around the world. Finally, since the need for our Shuffler products depends upon the casino’s use of live table games, our Shufflers also compete against any products that live table games compete against.

Competition for PTG content is based on player appeal, brand recognition, price and the strength of the underlying intellectual property. We compete on this basis, and on the strength of our extensive sales, service, marketing and distribution channels. We also compete with non-PTGs such as blackjack and baccarat, and several companies that primarily develop and license PTGs such as AGS, Galaxy Gaming, Inc. and Masque Publishing, Inc. Finally, some of our product lines may compete against each other for space on the casino floor.

Lottery Segment

There are approximately 180 lotteries throughout the world, operated by U.S. and international governmental authorities and their licensees. Governments typically authorize lotteries as a means of generating revenues without imposing additional taxes. Many jurisdictions have come to rely on the proceeds from lottery game sales as a significant source of funding for programs for which net lottery proceeds are designed to fund. Although there are many types of lottery games worldwide, the two principal categories of products offered are draw lottery games and instant lottery products sold both at retail and through internet (iLottery). Currently, 48 U.S. jurisdictions offer instant product lotteries and/or draw lotteries. Lottery operations in international jurisdictions can vary widely depending on the number of new lotteries entering the market, the number of lottery licenses issued within each market and the discontinuance of lotteries and operating licenses.

An instant lottery product is typically played by removing a scratch-off protective coating from a preprinted ticket to reveal if it is a winner. Draw lottery games, such as POWERBALL® and MEGA MILLIONS®, are based on a random selection of a series of numbers, and prizes are generally based on the number of winners who share the prize pool, although set prizes are also offered. Draw lottery games are generally provided through a lottery system in which lottery terminals in retail outlets are continuously connected to a central computer system for the sale and validation of lottery games and related functions. A lottery system may also be used to activate, sell and validate instant lottery products to confirm that a ticket is a winner and prevent duplicate payments. In some jurisdictions, separate instant game validation systems may be installed. Digital versions of these games are also available in many global jurisdictions and sold through mobile/internet systems referred to as iLottery.

Lotteries may offer a range of other games including sports betting, high-frequency monitor games and casino-style games via retail and internet. In the U.S., a number of lotteries offer these high frequency monitor games such as keno, which is typically played every four to five minutes in restricted social settings, such as bars, and is usually offered as an extension of the lottery system.

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The table below lists our more significant Lottery contracts as of December 31, 2020, representing approximately 31% of our Lottery revenue. Also included are instant or draw lottery game retail sales (as applicable), if publicly available, for each jurisdiction.

Lottery/Operator	Fiscal 2020 State Instant Game or Lottery Systems Retail Sales (in millions)		Type of Contract	Commencement Date of Current Contract	Expiration Date of Current Contract (before any exercise of remaining renewal options)(1)	Current Renewal Options Remaining
LNS (Italy)	€	8,176	Instant Products - PPU	October 2010	September 2028	None
Florida	$	5,665	Instant Products - Participation SGEP	October 2019	March 2027	7 years
Camelot (U.K. Lottery)	£	3,368	Instant Products - POS	November 2013	January 2023	None
Pennsylvania	$	4,596	Lottery Systems	January 2009	September 2021	None
	$	3,203	Instant Products - Participation SGEP	August 2007	September 2021	None
Georgia	$	3,428	Instant Products - Participation SGEP	September 2003	September 2025	None
(1) Our lottery contracts with U.S. state governmental authorities generally contain termination for convenience clauses, which may be exercised at the election of the state government.

Competition

The instant lottery products market segment is highly competitive and continues to be subject to intense price-based competition. Our principal instant products competitors in the U.S. are IGT and Pollard Banknote Limited. Internationally, a number of instant lottery product vendors compete with us including the competitors noted above and diversified printers in India, China and Latin America. Our principal competitors in the supply of lottery-related licensed games, promotional entertainment and loyalty or rewards programs are Alchemy3 LLC, IGT, Intralot S.A. and Pollard Banknote Limited.

The lottery systems business is also highly competitive and continues to be subject to intense price-based competition. Our principal competitors in this business are IGT and Intralot S.A. We also compete with various suppliers of lottery system components, such as terminals and computer systems, and lottery operators that internally develop their own systems.

As certain countries liberalize gaming regulations, lotteries may expand their scope by offering sports wagering, gaming machines, interactive gaming or other forms of gaming, which may introduce new suppliers that compete with us for lottery customers. In some jurisdictions, the liberalization of gaming regulations has included the privatization or outsourcing of all or a portion of the lottery operations via a competitive bidding process to a lottery operator or a license holder. We believe Camelot Group plc, IGT, Intralot, S.A. and the Sazka Group to be among those competitors operators who may also bid on such opportunities. These operators in most cases are customers we serve as a supplier and could also be partners or competitors when we participate as an operator.

SciPlay Segment

Our SciPlay business segment is a leading developer and publisher of digital games on mobile and web platforms. SciPlay operates in the social gaming market, which is characterized by gameplay online, on mobile phones or on tablets that are social and competitive, and self-directed in pace and session length. Our SciPlay business segment includes social gaming where we generate substantially all of our revenue from the sale of virtual coins, chips or bingo cards (“coins, chips and cards”), which players can use to play slot games, table games or bingo games. Once obtained, coins, chips and cards (either free or purchased) cannot be redeemed for cash nor exchanged for anything other than game play within our apps. SciPlay currently offers seven core games, including social casino games Jackpot Party® Casino, Gold Fish® Casino, Hot Shot Casino® and Quick Hit® Slots, and casual games MONOPOLY Slots, Bingo Showdown®, 88 Fortunes® Slots, and recently added a solitaire social game targeted toward casual game players as a part of the Come2Play acquisition on various platforms referenced herein. See Note 9 for further information regarding the Come2Play acquisition. SciPlay’s social casino games typically include slots-style game play and occasionally include table games-style game play, while SciPlay’s casual games blend slots-style or bingo game play with adventure game features. All of SciPlay’s games are offered and played across multiple platforms, including Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, with some games available on Microsoft and other web and mobile platforms. In addition to SciPlay’s internally created game content, SciPlay’s content library includes recognizable, real-world slot and table games content from Scientific Games. This content allows players who like playing land-based slot machines to enjoy some of those same titles in our free-to-play games. SciPlay has access to Scientific Games' library of more than 1,500 iconic casino titles, including titles and content from third-party licensed brands such as MONOPOLY™, JAMES BOND™, THE FLINTSTONES™, MICHAEL JACKSON™, and PLAYBOY™. SciPlay’s access to this content, coupled with our years of experience developing in-house content, uniquely positions SciPlay to create compelling social games.

A number of trends and opportunities are driving significant changes in digital gaming, which we believe are causing growth in the casual games market and providing opportunities for SciPlay to grow our social casino games and expand into other areas of the casual games market, such as:

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•Digital gaming is an engaging form of entertainment;

•Mobile devices are a leading medium to consume content such as games;

•Increasing number of players with the emergence of casual games;

•Scale is increasingly strategic in order to succeed in mobile gaming;

•Social casino gaming is an attractive market within digital gaming; and

•Additional market opportunities within the broader mobile gaming landscape.

Competition

Our SciPlay business segment faces significant competition in all aspects of its business. SciPlay’s primary social casino game competitors include Playtika, Product Madness/Big Fish Games (subsidiaries of Aristocrat), Zynga Inc., DoubleU Games/Double Down Interactive, GSN/Bash Gaming and Huuuge Games. SciPlay’s competitors in the broader social game market include Glu Mobile, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Kabam, Rovio and Tencent Holdings. On the broadest scale, SciPlay competes for the leisure time, attention and discretionary spending of players versus other forms of online entertainment, including social media, reading and other video games on the basis of a number of factors, including quality of player experience, brand awareness and reputation and access to distribution channels.

Digital Segment

Our Digital business segment provides highly customizable software design, development, licensing, maintenance and support services from a comprehensive suite of technology solutions. Our interactive casino solutions allow interactive casino operators to utilize our distribution platform, including full gaming process support services, brand and player management services, and iLottery and RMG offerings through our remote gaming servers. Our sports betting services enable our customers to operate sports books, including betting markets across both fixed-odds and pari-mutuel betting styles, a distribution platform, full gaming process support services, and brand and player management.

Competition

In our Digital gaming business, we compete for the discretionary spending of consumers with other digital gaming entertainment companies that offer real-money digital casino games and sports wagering services and/or platforms. Our primary real-money digital casino games competitors include IGT, Microgaming Software Systems Ltd., Evolution Gaming, and Playtech Limited. Our primary competitors in sports wagering platform solutions are other “first-party” solutions, IGT, and Kambi.

Research and Development

We believe our ability to attract new Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital customers and retain existing customers depends in part on our ability to evolve and continue to develop our product lines and service offerings by continually developing differentiating products, hardware and systems technology and functionality to enhance player entertainment and customer profitability. We are also focused on expanding use of the internet, mobile phones and other interactive technologies to increase play. Our gaming machines are usually designed and programmed by our internal engineering staff, and our game content is designed primarily by internal game development studios who consider market trends and customer feedback.

We have Gaming R&D personnel located in our Las Vegas, Nevada and Chicago, Illinois facilities. A large portion of our Lottery R&D team is based in our Alpharetta, Georgia facilities. We have SciPlay personnel located primarily in Austin, Texas; Cedar Falls, Iowa; and Tel Aviv, Israel. We have Digital R&D personnel based primarily in the United Kingdom, Greece and India. We also have game development studios in Las Vegas; Sydney, Australia; Manchester, England; and India (including Bangalore, Chennai and Pune), with additional R&D staff in other locations, including Reno, Nevada and Vienna, Austria.

Intellectual Property

Many of our products use intellectual property rights, including trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, patents and trade secrets. We consider our intellectual property rights to be, in the aggregate, material to our business. We protect our investment in R&D by seeking intellectual property protection as appropriate for our technologies and content. We also acquire and license intellectual property from third parties.

The terms of our patents vary based on the type of patent and the date and jurisdiction of filing or grant. The term of U.S. design patents expires 15 years from the date of grant, and the term of utility patents generally expires 20 years from the date of filing of the first non-provisional patent application in a family of patents. The actual protection afforded by a patent depends upon the type of patent, the scope of its coverage and the availability of legal remedies in the applicable country.

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Certain technologies, which are material to our businesses, are the subject of patents issued and patent applications currently pending in the U.S. and certain other countries. Our Lottery business uses our patented and patent-pending technologies in the production, secure printing, validation and distribution of instant lottery products. Our Gaming, SciPlay and Digital businesses use our patented and patent-pending technologies in games and associated platforms and systems. In addition, under a patent cross-licensing agreement with IGT, we can offer games using patented game features from the patent portfolios of other members of IGT’s slot game features program.

We market many of our products under trademarks and copyrights that provide product differentiation and recognition and promote our portfolio of product offerings. All of our games feature elements that are subject to copyright rights and protection. In addition, we generally obtain trademark protection and often seek to register trademarks for the names and designs under which we market and license our products and games. Protections for trademarks exist in many countries, including the U.S., for as long as the trademark is registered and/or used. Registrations are generally issued for fixed, but renewable terms, although trademark rights may exist whether or not a mark is registered and the duration of the registrations varies by country.

We believe that our use of both our own and third-party licensed brand names and related intellectual property contributes to the appeal and success of our products, and that our future ability to license, acquire or develop new brand names is important to our continued success. Therefore, we continue to invest in the recognition of our brands and brands that we license. Certain of our games are based on popular brands licensed from third parties, such as Hasbro International, Inc., Fremantle Media North America, CBS Studios Inc., Warner Bros. Consumer Products Inc., Playboy Enterprises International, Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, EON Productions Limited, Danjaq LLC, MGM Interactive Inc., MGM Consumer Products, and Mattel Inc.

From time to time, we become aware of potential infringement of our intellectual property by competitors and other third parties and consider what action, if any, to take in that regard, including litigation where appropriate. We are also subject to threatened or actual intellectual property-related claims by third parties from time to time. See the risk factors captioned “Our business depends on the protection of our intellectual property and proprietary information”, “We rely on the ability to use the intellectual property rights of third parties”, and “The intellectual property rights of others may prevent us from developing new products and services, entering new markets or may expose us to liability or costly litigation” under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Production Processes, Sources and Availability of Components

We currently produce substantially all of our gaming machines through a mix of our manufacturing facilities and contracted parties. We have finishing lines in Las Vegas; Sydney, Australia; Barcelona, Spain; Midrand, South Africa; and Manchester, England. These finishing lines allow for the completion and testing of our gaming machine assemblies from our facilities. We also refurbish used gaming machines primarily at our Las Vegas and Manchester facilities.

Manufacturing commitments are generally based on expected quarterly sales orders from customers. Due to uneven order flow from customers, component parts for gaming machines are purchased and assembled into partial products that are scheduled for just in time delivery to allow final assembly lead time to meet agreed customer delivery dates. Our gaming machine manufacturing processes generally consist of assembling component parts and sub-assemblies into a complete gaming machine. The level of completion and assembly varies by product platform and geographic region.

Shufflers are assembled in our Las Vegas facility and by third parties near Salzburg, Austria and Juarez, Mexico, which includes various levels of sub-assemblies with completion and testing at one of our finishing lines described above.

Hardware and component parts associated with our CMSs are purchased directly from the contract manufacturers and flow through our Las Vegas facilities with some assembly and testing. These parts do not require a significant amount of assembly and are used primarily in systems implementations, which take place at customer locations.    

Our dedicated computer-controlled printing process is specifically designed to produce secure instant lottery products. We also have the capability to track instant products from the point of production through delivery to retailers. Instant products are delivered finished and ready for distribution by the lottery authority (or by us under certain contracts). An instant product that has been removed at any point in the distribution chain in an unauthorized manner can be flagged and invalidated in the event that it is used to claim winnings.

Production of our lottery terminals (and related component products) primarily involves the assembly of electronic and mechanical components into more complex systems and products. Third-party vendors generally manufacture and assemble our lottery terminals. We normally have sufficient lead time between reaching an agreement and the commencement of operations so that we are able to provide our Lottery customers with a fully functioning system that is customized to meet their

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requirements. We believe that this is consistent with our competitors’ lead times and is also consistent with the needs of our customers.

We place advance orders for certain gaming and lottery components with long lead times based on projected customer demand.

We believe we have an adequate supply of component parts and raw materials used in manufacturing our gaming machines, shufflers, CMSs and lottery terminals.

Seasonality

Our results of operations can fluctuate due to seasonal trends and other factors. Sales of our gaming machines to casinos are generally strongest in the spring and slowest in the summer, while revenue from our Participation gaming machines is generally highest in the spring and summer. Player activity for SciPlay is generally slower in the second and third quarters of the year, particularly during the summer months. Player activity for our Digital business, specifically digital casino operations, is generally slower in the third quarter during the summer months and is generally higher in the fourth quarter and varies based on seasons of different popular sports such as soccer, professional and collegiate football, and professional and collegiate basketball. Historical seasonality has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 business disruptions and could continue to be impacted in future periods, particularly for our Gaming business and sales of our gaming machines. See the risk factor captioned “Our results of operations fluctuate due to seasonality and other factors, and, therefore, our periodic operating results are not guarantees of future performance” under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Human Capital

We are a leading developer of technology-based products and services and associated content for the worldwide gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries. Our global reach is made possible through the expertise, skill and dedicated efforts of our employees who serve customers in more than 100 countries on 6 continents.

As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 9,000 persons worldwide, with approximately 4,200 employed domestically and 4,800 employed internationally.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion are embedded in our core value of team spirit, by which we collaborate as one diverse and inclusive team with an upbeat, inventive passion for building great entertainment. In support of this core value, we have formulated a diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan and established a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and task force in 2020 to make key decisions, review progress, communicate results and identify areas that require further development. We have invested in analysis of our diversity, equity and inclusion data and continue to implement hiring, training, recruiting and retention initiatives across our workforce in line with our diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan.

We are committed to creating an inclusive global gaming industry as a founding member of the All-In Diversity Project, a non-profit organization creating tools to advance the industry’s diversity, inclusion and workplace equality. As a founding member, we work collaboratively with additional partners to determine diversity, equity and inclusion expectations and standards for the gaming industry, while driving a conversation to establish global standards.

We also help drive diversity across our industry by including minority, women, disabled, and/or veteran-owned businesses in our supply chain and by counting some small businesses and businesses in historically underutilized business zones among our suppliers. As one of the leading global suppliers of products and services to gaming operations and lotteries, we believe that diversity in our supplier base is good business. Our supplier diversity program encourages diverse businesses to provide materials and services that offer value and competitive pricing. We are proud to be a national corporate member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

Safety

The health and safety of our employees is a top priority of our leaders. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have implemented new work procedures that allow employees to work from home and collaborate remotely. We have also taken measures to keep our workforce safe by monitoring and reducing the impact of the outbreak, including putting in place a global crisis monitoring team, protocols for responding when employees are infected and enhanced cleaning procedures at all sites.

Compensation and Benefits

Scientific Games provides a competitive and comprehensive benefits program that is aligned with our business objectives and attempts to inspire employees to drive innovation and improve Company performance. In addition to cash

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compensation, Scientific Games offers medical, dental and vision plans; employee stock purchase plans; paid time off and paid holidays; company-paid disability; life insurance; 401(k) plans; flexible spending accounts; and employee assistance programs.

Government Regulation

General

Each of our business segments is generally subject to extensive and evolving regulation. For the Gaming and Lottery business segments, regulation customarily includes some form of licensing or regulatory screening of operators, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors and their applicable affiliates, their major shareholders, officers, directors and key employees. In addition, certain of our gaming products and technologies must be certified or approved in certain jurisdictions in which we operate. Regulators review many facets of an applicant or holder of a license, including its financial stability, integrity and business experience. Any failure to receive a license or the loss of a license that we currently hold could have a material adverse effect on us or on our results of operations, cash flow or financial condition. Each of our business segments is subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the internet and over mobile networks, especially in relation to privacy and security. Furthermore, for the SciPlay business segment, there is also significant opposition in some jurisdictions to interactive social gaming, including social casino gaming. For our Digital business segment, although some states are expanding the availability of interactive gaming, there have also been various state and federal bills proposed recently in the U.S. to restrict or prohibit interactive gaming and lottery sales. Significant resources are being devoted to supporting these efforts. Although these efforts have generally not been successful, we cannot assure that laws restricting interactive gaming or lottery sales will not be passed at either the federal or state level.

While we believe that we are in compliance with all material gaming and lottery laws and regulatory requirements applicable to us, we cannot assure that our activities or the activities of our customers will not become the subject of any regulatory or law enforcement proceeding or that any such proceeding would not have a material adverse impact on us or our results of operations, cash flow or financial condition.

We have developed and implemented a rigorous internal compliance program in an effort to ensure that we comply with legal requirements imposed in connection with our Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital activities, and legal requirements generally applicable to all publicly traded companies. The compliance program is run on a day-to-day basis by our Chief Compliance Officer with legal advice provided by attorneys in our legal and compliance departments and outside experts. The compliance program is overseen by the Compliance Committee of our Board of Directors, which is comprised of employee and non-employee directors and a non-employee gaming law expert. While we are firmly committed to full compliance with all applicable laws, we cannot assure that our compliance program will prevent the violation of one or more laws or regulations, or that a violation by us or an employee will not result in the imposition of a monetary fine or suspension or revocation of one or more of our licenses.

In the EU, various judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) have addressed the approaches adopted by certain member states to restrict and/or regulate gaming. Topics addressed in those judgments include the ability of member states to grant, or to maintain, monopolies for gaming and lottery activities and the power of member states to limit access by gaming and/or lottery providers established elsewhere in the EU. Several cases on these subjects are currently pending in the CJEU. However, in December 2017, the European Commission dropped all enforcement actions related to gambling in an effort to change the way it enforces EU law, leaving compliance with EU laws to national courts. Notwithstanding this development, the European Commission adopted a decision in April 2018 requesting the European Committee for Standardization (a group of EU regulators and industry bodies) to draft a European standard on reporting in support of supervision of online gambling services.

While we believe that we have developed appropriate procedures and policies to comply with the requirements of these evolving laws and legal pronouncements, we cannot assure that our activities or the activities of our customers will not become the subject of law enforcement proceedings or that any such proceedings would not have a material adverse impact on us or our business plans. Furthermore, laws and regulations applicable to lotteries and gaming in U.S. and international jurisdictions are subject to change and the effect of such changes on our ongoing and potential operations cannot be predicted with certainty.

From time to time, we retain government affairs representatives in various U.S. and international jurisdictions to advise elected and appointed officials and the public concerning our views on gaming and lottery-related legislation, and to monitor such legislation and to advise us in our relations with gaming and lottery authorities.

Gaming

We provide our games, gaming machines, gaming systems, table products and related products and services in legal gaming jurisdictions worldwide. The manufacture, distribution, provision and operation of our gaming products and services is

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subject to regulation and approval by various city, county, state, provincial, federal, tribal and foreign agencies. The primary purposes of these rules are to (1) ensure the responsibility, financial stability and character of the parties involved in these activities through licensing and registration requirements, (2) ensure the integrity and compliance of our gaming products and services and (3) prohibit the use of gaming products and services at unauthorized locations or for the benefit of undesirable parties.

Typically, gaming regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate are established by statute and are administered by a regulatory agency with broad authority to interpret gaming regulations and to regulate gaming activities. Among other things, gaming authorities in the various jurisdictions in which we are licensed:

•adopt additional rules and regulations under the implementing statutes;

•investigate violations of gaming regulations;

•enforce gaming regulations and impose disciplinary sanctions for violations of such laws, including fines, penalties and revocation of gaming licenses;

•review the character and fitness of manufacturers, distributors and operators of gaming products and services and make determinations regarding their suitability or qualification for licensure;

•grant licenses for the manufacture, distribution and operation of gaming products and services;

•review and approve transactions (such as acquisitions, material commercial transactions, securities offerings and debt transactions); and

•establish and collect related fees and/or taxes.

We believe we hold all of the licenses and permits necessary to conduct our business. We are authorized to sell, lease or operate our gaming products and services in approximately 466 jurisdictions worldwide (including jurisdictions that do not require licensing), including approximately 188 international gaming jurisdictions.

In addition, a number of U.S. states authorize wagering on VLTs at state regulated and licensed facilities. Although some states restrict VLTs to already existing wagering facilities, others permit these machines to be placed at venues such as bars, restaurants, truck stops and other specifically licensed gaming facilities. In addition, all of the Canadian provinces and various other international jurisdictions have authorized VLTs.

Regulatory requirements vary among jurisdictions, but the majority of jurisdictions require licenses, permits or findings of suitability for our company, individual officers, directors, major stockholders and key employees. Our gaming hardware and software also must be approved either by a gaming authority laboratory or a private laboratory authorized by the gaming authority.

Lottery

Currently, 48 U.S. jurisdictions offer instant game lotteries and/or draw lotteries. The operation of lotteries in the U.S. and internationally is subject to extensive regulation. Although certain features of a lottery, such as the percentage of gross revenues that must be paid back to players in prize money, are usually set by legislation, lottery regulatory authorities generally exercise significant discretion, including with respect to the determination of the types of games played, the price of each wager, the manner in which the lottery is marketed and the selection of suppliers of equipment, technology and services and retailers of lottery products.

To ensure the integrity of contract awards and lottery operations, most jurisdictions require detailed background disclosure on a continuous basis from, and conduct background investigations of, vendors and their officers, directors, subsidiaries, affiliates and principal stockholders. Background investigations of the vendors’ employees who will be directly responsible for the operation of lottery systems are also generally conducted and most states reserve the right to require the removal of employees who they deem to be unsuitable or whose presence they believe may adversely affect the operational security or integrity of the lottery. Certain jurisdictions also require extensive personal and financial disclosure and background checks from persons and entities that hold a specified percentage (typically five percent or more) of a vendor’s securities either legally, beneficially and/or through voting rights. The failure of such holders of our securities to submit to background checks and provide such disclosure could result in the imposition of penalties and could jeopardize the award of a lottery contract to us or provide grounds for termination of an existing lottery contract.

The award of lottery contracts and ongoing operations of lotteries in international jurisdictions are also extensively regulated, although international regulations typically vary from those prevailing in the U.S. Restrictions are frequently imposed on foreign companies seeking to do business in such jurisdictions and, as a consequence, we have in a number of instances allied ourselves with local companies when seeking international lottery contracts.

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SciPlay

SciPlay is subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies operating online, including over the internet and mobile networks, many of which are still evolving and being interpreted. We are also subject to a number of federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations governing data privacy and security, including with respect to the collection, storage, use, transmission and protection of personal information and other consumer data. The scope of data privacy and security regulations continues to evolve, and we believe that the adoption of increasingly restrictive regulations in this area is likely within the U.S. and other jurisdictions.

There is also significant opposition in some jurisdictions to interactive social gaming, including social casino gaming. Some states or countries have anti-gaming groups that specifically target social casino games. Such opposition could lead these jurisdictions to adopt legislation or impose a regulatory framework to govern interactive social gaming or social casino gaming specifically. These could result in a prohibition on interactive social gaming or social casino gaming altogether, restrict our ability to advertise our games, or substantially increase our costs to comply with these regulations.

We continue to devote significant attention to monitoring these developments. However, we cannot predict the timing, scope or terms of any state, federal or foreign regulations relating to SciPlay.

Digital

In the U.S., the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (“UIGEA”) prohibits among other things, the acceptance by a business of a wager by means of the internet where such wager is prohibited by any federal or state law where initiated, received or otherwise made. Under UIGEA severe criminal and civil sanctions may be imposed on the owners and operators of such systems and on financial institutions that process wagering transactions. The law contains a safe harbor for wagers placed within a single state (disregarding intermediate routing of the transmission) where the method of placing the bet and receiving the bet is authorized by that state’s law, provided the underlying regulations establish appropriate age and location verification.

Until 2011, there was uncertainty as to whether the Federal Wire Act of 1961 (the “Wire Act”) prohibited states from conducting intrastate lottery transactions via the internet if such transactions crossed state lines. In late 2011, the Office of Legal Counsel of the DOJ (the “OLC”) issued an opinion which concluded that the prohibitions of the Wire Act were limited to sports gambling and thus did not apply to state lotteries at all (the “2011 DOJ opinion”).

Following the issuance of the 2011 DOJ opinion, a number of states have adopted or are considering adopting legislation to specifically authorize online poker, online gambling and sports wagering. On May 14, 2018 the Supreme Court of the U.S. overturned the PASPA, a decision that opened up a path to legalization of sports wagering across the country. Following this ruling, at least 25 states have legalized sports wagering, with some of those states permitting online sports wagering. Other states are considering legislation that would permit legal sports wagering, both land based and online. Additionally, six state lotteries offer (and other lotteries are considering offering) internet instant game sales to in-state lottery customers, and a number of other states allow subscription sales of draw games over the internet. Pennsylvania’s gaming expansion bill in October 2017, which authorized online casino and land based and online sports wagering, also authorized Pennsylvania’s lottery to distribute lottery products, including instant ticket games, through numerous channels including web applications, mobile applications, mobile web, tablets and social media.

In 2018, at the request of the Criminal Division, the OLC reconsidered the 2011 DOJ opinion’s conclusion that the Wire Act was limited to sports gambling. On January 14, 2019, the OLC published a legal opinion dated November 2, 2018 (the “2018 DOJ opinion”), which concluded that the 2011 DOJ opinion had incorrectly interpreted the Wire Act. In the 2018 DOJ opinion, the OLC concluded that the restrictions on the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets and wagers in the Wire Act were not limited to sports gambling but instead applied to all bets and wagers. These restrictions therefore apply equally to our iGaming, iLottery, and sports betting solutions and services. The OLC also found that the enactment of the UIGEA described above did not modify the scope of the Wire Act. The DOJ later issued memoranda directing federal law enforcement agencies to refrain from enforcing the conclusions of the 2018 DOJ opinion for activities other than sports betting until June 30, 2020. No official extension of the forbearance period has been announced. On January 20, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion that the Wire Act applies only to the interstate transmission of wire communications related to sports gambling and not to all bets and wagers. At this time, we are unable to determine whether the 2018 DOJ opinion will be upheld by other courts or what impact the 2018 DOJ opinion or the impact of any other challenge to the 2018 DOJ opinion will have on us or our customers.

Although some states are expanding the availability of interactive gaming, there have also been various state and federal bills proposed recently in the U.S. to restrict or prohibit interactive gaming and lottery sales, and significant resources are being devoted to supporting these efforts. Although these efforts have generally not been successful, we cannot assure that laws restricting interactive gaming or lottery sales will not be passed at either the federal or state level. For instance, in May

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2015, the Minnesota legislature passed an amendment to the state’s lottery law prohibiting the sale of instant win lottery tickets over the internet. Furthermore, changes in the executive branches of government at the state and federal level could affect federal and state policies on gaming as well.

On December 19, 2019, the U.K. Government confirmed the proposed review of the Gambling Act 2005. The review started on December 8, 2020 with the publication of terms of reference and an initial 16 week call for evidence. To varying degrees, a number of European governments have taken steps to change the regulation of internet wagering (also known as online gambling) through the implementation of new or revised licensing and taxation regimes, with increasingly stringent requirements particularly on B2Cs in relation to responsible gambling and affordability checks. Also, some jurisdictions impose sanctions on unlicensed providers. Countries outside Europe and the U.S. have also begun evaluating interactive gaming regulation and an increase in regulated markets outside of the U.S. and Europe is likely to continue. Some of our competitors may be more willing to provide internet wagering in countries where the relevant laws and regulations are unclear or not uniformly enforced, putting us at a competitive disadvantage if we do not provide services related to internet wagering in such countries.

We continue to devote significant attention to monitoring these developments. However, we cannot predict the timing, scope or terms of any state, federal or foreign regulations relating to interactive gaming and lottery sales.

Additional Information Regarding Government Regulations

We are subject to specific gaming requirements in the different jurisdictions in which we operate. For additional information, we have filed a summary of the gaming regulations that govern our businesses as an exhibit to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See Exhibit 99.4 “Gaming Regulations”. In addition, see “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of risk factors related to regulations to which we may be subject.

Executive Officers of the Company

Certain information regarding each of our executive officers is set forth below.

Name	Age	Position
Barry L. Cottle	59	President and Chief Executive Officer and Director
Michael C. Eklund	52	Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary
James Sottile	60	Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Matthew Wilson	39	Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Gaming
Patrick J. McHugh	56	Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Lottery
Michael F. Winterscheidt	50	Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Stephen E. Richardson	53	Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Corporate Security

Barry L. Cottle has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since June 2018. Mr. Cottle has also served as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of SciPlay since April 2019. Mr. Cottle joined SGC as Chief Executive, SG Interactive, in August 2015 to lead the strategy and growth plans of the Interactive group. Before joining SGC, Mr. Cottle served as Vice Chairman of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. from February 2015 until August 2015 while concurrently serving as Senior Vice President of Technology at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated from February 2015 until August 2017, where he helped drive digital innovation. Prior to that, he was the Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President—Games for Zynga Inc. from January 2012 until October 2014, where he led corporate and business development, strategic partnerships, distribution, marketing and advertising and ultimately the Social Casino group. Previously, Mr. Cottle served as the Executive Vice President—Interactive for Electronic Arts Inc. from August 2007 to January 2012. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cottle served as the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Quickoffice, Inc.; Chief Operating Officer of Palm, Inc.; and Senior Vice President of Disney TeleVentures, a division of The Walt Disney Company dedicated to creating interactive online/TV experiences.

Michael C. Eklund has served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary for Scientific Games since July 2020. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of IRI, a global leader in innovative data and analytic solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies. Previously, Mr. Eklund held many senior leadership roles at Dell Technologies.

James Sottile has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer since September 2018. Prior to this role, Mr. Sottile was with Jones Day, where he was a partner in its New York office. Mr. Sottile was named a notable practitioner by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers from 2005 to 2018 and was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America from 2011 to 2018.

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Patrick J. McHugh has served as Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Lottery since January 2019. Prior to this role, Mr. McHugh served as the Company’s Senior Vice President, Global Lottery Systems from November 2015 to December 2018, and prior to that, Mr. McHugh served in various positions at the Company, including on the leadership executive team.

Matthew Wilson has served as Executive Vice President and Group Chief Executive, Gaming since March 2020. Mr. Wilson has over sixteen years of gaming industry experience. Prior to his role at Scientific Games, he was the Managing Director of the Americas at Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. (“Aristocrat”) from February 2017 until August 2019. Mr. Wilson began his tenure at Aristocrat 2004 and held several significant positions in a variety of Aristocrat’s markets during his time there, including serving as Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing Americas from September 2014 until October 2015. His other roles at Aristocrat include Regional Sales Manager and Vice President of Marketing for the Americas.

Michael F. Winterscheidt has served as Chief Accounting Officer since February 2017 and was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer in February 2019. Mr. Winterscheidt has also served as Chief Accounting Officer and Secretary of SciPlay since April 2019. Previously, he served as the Company’s Vice President and Corporate Controller. Prior to joining SGC, Mr. Winterscheidt served three years with Caesars Entertainment Corporation, ending his tenure as Vice President and Corporate Controller. Prior to that, he had leadership roles leading the corporate accounting and financial reporting organizations of Delta Airlines, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation. He was previously a manager in the audit practice of the global accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP.

Stephen E. Richardson has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Corporate Security since April 2018. Previously, Mr. Richardson served the Federal Bureau of Investigation over a 20-year decorated career, most recently as the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division in Washington, DC.

Access to Public Filings

We file annual reports, quarterly reports, current reports, proxy statements and other documents with the SEC under the Exchange Act. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov.

We make the following information, among others, available free of charge through the Investors link on our website at www.scientificgames.com/investors and we use our website as a means of disclosing material information to the public in a broad, non-exclusionary manner for purposes of the SEC’s Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD):

•our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed electronically with or furnished to the SEC;

•Section 16 ownership reports filed by our executive officers, directors and 10% stockholders on Forms 3, 4 and 5 and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed electronically with the SEC; and

•our Code of Business Conduct, which applies to all of our officers, directors and employees (which is also our required code of ethics applicable to our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer in keeping with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002).

The above details about our website and its content are only for information. The contents of our website are not, nor shall they be deemed to be, incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 1A.    RISK FACTORS

The risks described below are not the only risks facing us. Please be aware that additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial could also materially and adversely affect our business operations. You should also refer to the other information contained in our periodic reports, including the Forward-Looking Statements section, our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a further discussion of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our business. Except where the context otherwise indicates, references below to the “Company,” “we,” “our,” “ours” and “us” include all of our subsidiaries.

Risk Factors Summary

The following is a summary of some of the risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of each risk factor contained below.

Risks Relating to Economic and Current Conditions Impacting us and our Business

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•The recent COVID-19 pandemic and similar health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks and public perception thereof, significantly disrupted our operations and adversely affected and continue to adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

•Our future results of operations may be negatively impacted by slow growth or declines in the replacement cycle of gaming machines and by the slow growth of new gaming jurisdictions or slow addition of casinos in existing jurisdictions.

•We have foreign operations which expose us to business and legal risks, including compliance with anti-corruption laws, and a portion of our revenue and expenses are denominated in British Pounds Sterling, Australian Dollars and Euros, which subjects us to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and other risks.

Risks Relating to our Capital Structure

•Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

•We may not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities to service all of our indebtedness and other obligations, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations, which may not be successful.

•Agreements governing our indebtedness impose certain restrictions that may affect our ability to operate our business. Failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in the acceleration of the maturity of our indebtedness and require us to make payments on our indebtedness. Were this to occur, we would not have sufficient cash to pay our accelerated indebtedness.

•We may not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities, cash on hand and available borrowings under our credit agreement to finance required capital expenditures under new contracts and meet our other cash needs or satisfy our minimum liquidity covenant. These obligations require a significant amount of cash, which would reduce our available liquidity.

Risks Relating to our Business and our Industries

•We operate in highly competitive industries, and our success depends on our ability to effectively compete with numerous domestic and foreign businesses.

•We heavily depend on our ability to win, maintain and renew our customer contracts, including our long-term Lottery contracts, and we could lose substantial revenue if we are unable to renew certain of our contracts on substantially similar terms or at all.

•Our success depends upon our ability to adapt to, and offer products and services that keep pace with, changing technology and evolving industry standards.

•We invest significant resources in our R&D efforts, which may not lead to successful or commercially viable new technologies, services or products.

•Our success depends on our ability to produce new and innovative products and services that respond to customer demand and create strong and sustained player appeal.

•We may not succeed in realizing the anticipated benefits of our strategic equity investments and relationships.

•We may not achieve some or all of the anticipated benefits of SciPlay being a standalone public company, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operation.

Risks Relating to our Technology

•Our success depends on the security and integrity of the systems and products we offer, and security breaches or other disruptions could compromise our information or the information of our customers and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer.

•Our business depends on the protection of our intellectual property and proprietary information.

•We rely on the ability to use the intellectual property rights of third parties.

Risks Relating to Legal, Political or Other Regulatory Factors

•We and our industries are subject to strict government regulations that may limit our existing operations, have an adverse impact on our ability to grow and affect our license eligibility or expose us to fines or other penalties.

•Legislative interpretation and enforcement of certain gaming or sports wagering activities could adversely affect financial performance and reputation.

•We may not be able to capitalize on the expansion of internet or other forms of interactive gaming or other trends and changes in the gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries, including due to laws and regulations governing these industries.

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•The continuing uncertainty following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU may adversely affect our business.

•Changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or the examination of our tax positions, including in light of recent stockholder transactions, could materially affect our financial condition and results of operations.

General Risks

•We have incurred, and may continue to incur, restructuring costs, the benefits of which are unpredictable and may not be achieved.

•We may incur additional impairment charges.

•We depend on our key employees and rely on skilled employees with creative and technical backgrounds.

You should carefully consider the following risks and other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K in evaluating us and our common stock. The risk factors generally have been separated into six groups: risks relating to economic and current conditions impacting us and our business, risks relating to our capital structure, risks relating to our business and our industries, risks relating to our technology, risks relating to legal, political and other regulatory factors and general risk factors.

Risks Relating to Economic and Current Conditions Impacting us and our Business

The recent COVID-19 pandemic and similar health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks and public perception thereof,

significantly disrupted our operations and adversely affected and continue to adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

The recent outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, COVID-19, and public perception thereof, have contributed to consumer unease and decreased discretionary spending and consumer travel, which have had, and will continue to have, a negative effect on us, especially in our Gaming and Lottery businesses. Other future health epidemics or contagious disease outbreaks could do the same. We cannot predict the ultimate effects that the outbreak of COVID-19, any resulting unfavorable social, political and economic conditions and decrease in discretionary spending or travel would have on us, as they would be expected to impact our customers, suppliers and business partners in varied ways in different communities. In our Gaming business, especially our Participation gaming business, our Digital business, and our Lottery business, our revenue is largely driven by players’ disposable incomes and level of gaming activity and lottery purchases. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has led to economic and financial uncertainty for many consumers and has reduced, and may continue to reduce, the disposable incomes of players across all of our business units. This resulted in fewer patrons visiting casinos and fewer players purchasing lottery products, whether land-based or online, and lower amounts spent per casino visit or lottery purchase and may result in, reduced spend on online gambling activities, which negatively impact the results of operations, cash flows and financial condition of our casino customers, their ability to purchase or lease our products and services, revenues to lotteries and, therefore, our Lottery business revenue, and revenues to our online casino and sportsbook partners and, therefore, our Digital business revenue.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting unfavorable economic conditions have also impacted, and could continue to impact, the ability of our customers to make timely payments to us. These unfavorable conditions have caused, and could continue to or may cause, some of our Gaming and Lottery customers to temporarily close gaming venues and lottery operations, decrease spending on marketing of or purchases of Lottery products or declare bankruptcy, which would adversely affect our business. In recent years, our Gaming business has expanded the use of extended payment term financing for gaming machine purchases, and we expect to continue to provide a higher level of extended payment term financing in this business until demand from our customers for such financings abates or our business model changes. These arrangements may increase our collection risk, and if customers are not able to pay us, whether as a result of financial difficulties, bankruptcy or otherwise, we may incur provisions for bad debt related to our inability to collect certain receivables. In addition, both extended payment term financing and operating leases result in a delay in our receipt of cash, which reduces our cash balance, liquidity and financial flexibility to respond to changing economic events. We have also seen a negative impact on future demand of certain Gaming products as a result of COVID-19, which has resulted and could continue to result in material inventory charges, which could increase our cost of products and decrease our gross margin. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded $48 million in charges related to inventory in our Gaming business segment. The recent outbreak also resulted in significant volatility in both the credit and equity markets, potentially leading to an economic downturn. The difficulty or inability of our customers to generate or obtain adequate levels of capital to finance their ongoing operations may reduce their ability to purchase our products and services. In our Lottery business, we believe that difficult economic conditions have contributed, or may contribute, to reductions in spending on marketing by our customers and, in certain instances, less favorable terms under our contracts, as many of our customers face budget shortfalls and seek to cut costs. In our Digital business, the suspension or cancellation of the majority of sporting events which has and could continue to negatively impact the financial condition of our sportsbook customers, their ability to purchase development and other services, their risk of payment default, or their spending

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levels as they seek to reduce costs, each of which could negatively impact our Digital business revenue. In addition, suppliers to our Digital business may suffer financial difficulties and may not be able to offer their services and products, which could restrict the provision of our services and negatively impact our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

Various gambling regulators have implemented additional responsible and safer gambling measures relating to our

Digital casino business as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, including the implementation of bet limits, spin speeds, deposit limits and bonusing, which could negatively impact on our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition,

particularly if additional gambling regulators follow suit.

Furthermore, this outbreak of COVID-19 has caused, and may continue to cause us and certain of our suppliers, to implement temporary adjustment of work schemes allowing employees to work from home and collaborate remotely. We have taken measures to monitor and reduce the impact of the outbreak, including putting in place a global crisis monitoring team, protocols for responding when employees are infected and enhanced cleaning procedures at all sites, but we cannot assure these will be sufficient to mitigate the risks faced by our and our partners’ work forces. We have also taken measures to reduce operating costs and ensure liquidity given the uncertain impact of COVID-19 on revenue, deferred all non-critical capital expenditures, have implemented a number of employee-related actions and are actively considering further actions. However, we have experienced and may still experience lower work efficiency and productivity, which may adversely affect our service quality, and our business operations have been and could be disrupted if and/or when any of our employees has been or is suspected of infection, since this has and may cause our employees to be quarantined and/or our offices to be temporarily shut down. We will continue to incur costs for our operations, and our revenues during this period are difficult to predict. As a result of any of the above developments, our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition for the full fiscal year of 2020, have been and will continue to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The extent to which this outbreak impacts our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and unpredictable, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity and duration of this outbreak and the actions taken by governmental authorities and us to contain it or treat its impact. For more information on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on each of our business segments and measures taken by us in response to COVID-19, see section captioned “Business Overview – Highlights, including recent developments – Impacts of COVID-19” in Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Our future results of operations may be negatively impacted by slow growth or declines in the replacement cycle of gaming machines and by the slow growth of new gaming jurisdictions or slow addition of casinos in existing jurisdictions.

Demand for our Gaming products and services is driven by the replacement of existing gaming machines in existing casinos, the establishment of new jurisdictions, the opening of additional casinos in existing jurisdictions and the expansion of existing casinos. Slow growth or declines in the replacement cycle of gaming machines have reduced and will continue to reduce the demand for our products and negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, and have resulted and could continue to result in material inventory charges, which could increase our cost of products and decrease our gross margin. We recorded charges related to inventory of $48 million in the year ended December 31, 2020 in our Gaming business segment primarily due to the COVID-19 disruption impacting future demand combined with a reassessment of our Gaming product strategy.

The opening of new casinos, expansion of existing casinos and replacement of existing gaming machines in existing casinos fluctuate with demand, economic conditions, regulatory approvals and the availability of financing and have been negatively affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the expansion of gaming into new jurisdictions can be a protracted process. In the U.S., U.K. and other international jurisdictions in which we operate, governments usually require a public referendum and legislative action before establishing or expanding gaming. Any of these factors could delay, restrict or prohibit the expansion of our business and negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We have foreign operations which expose us to business and legal risks, including compliance with anti-corruption laws, and a portion of our revenue and expenses are denominated in British Pounds Sterling, Australian Dollars and Euros, which subjects us to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and other risks.

We are a global business and derive a substantial portion of our revenue from operations outside of the U.S. For the year ended December 31, 2020, we derived approximately 33% of our revenue from sales to customers outside of the U.S.

Our consolidated financial results are affected by currency exchange rate fluctuations. We are exposed to currency exchange rate fluctuations because portions of our revenue and expenses are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, particularly the British Pound Sterling, the Australian dollar and the Euro. We are also exposed to currency exchange rate fluctuations in the British Pound Sterling due to continuing uncertainties surrounding Brexit. See the risk factor below captioned “The continuing uncertainty following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU may adversely affect our business.” Exchange rate fluctuations have in the past adversely affected our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition and

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may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition and the value of our assets outside the U.S. in the future. If a foreign currency is devalued in a jurisdiction in which we are paid in such currency, we may require our customers to pay higher amounts for our products, which they may be unable or unwilling to pay. In addition, a portion of our debt is denominated in Euros, and the re-introduction of individual currencies in one or more member states of the EU or, in extreme circumstances, the possible dissolution of the Euro entirely, could adversely affect the value of our Euro-denominated debt, and the treatment of debt obligations previously denominated in Euros would be uncertain. This uncertainty could have a material adverse effect on our foreign operations, including on our Euro-denominated debt. In addition, if such events occurred, the financial and capital markets within and outside Europe could constrict and negatively impact our ability to finance our business. Such events could also cause a substantial reduction in consumer confidence and spending that could negatively impact our customers and our business.

Our operations in foreign jurisdictions subject us to additional risks customarily associated with such operations, including: the complexity of foreign laws, regulations and markets; the uncertainty of enforcement of remedies in foreign jurisdictions; the impact of foreign labor laws and disputes; the ability to attract and retain key personnel in foreign jurisdictions; the economic, tax and regulatory policies of local governments; compliance with applicable anti-money laundering, anti-bribery and anti‑corruption laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, U.K. Bribery Act and other anti‑corruption laws that generally prohibit us and our agents from offering, promising, authorizing or making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business; compliance with applicable sanctions regimes regarding dealings with certain persons or countries; import and export restrictions and other trade barriers, including imposition of tariffs; and increased trade tensions between countries or political and economic unions. Certain of these laws also contain provisions that require accurate record keeping and further require companies to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls. Although we have policies and controls in place that are designed to ensure compliance with these laws, if those controls are ineffective or an employee or intermediary fails to comply with the applicable regulations, we may be subject to criminal and civil sanctions and other penalties. Any such violation could disrupt our business and adversely affect our reputation, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

In addition, our international business operations could be interrupted and negatively affected by terrorist activity, political unrest or other economic or political uncertainties. Further, U.S. and foreign jurisdictions could impose tariffs, quotas, trade barriers and other similar restrictions on our international sales.

For example, in 2018 the U.S. announced certain trade actions under Section 232, and Section 301 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, including tariff increases on several imported products. These U.S. tariffs, along with other U.S. trade actions, have triggered retaliatory actions by certain affected countries, such as the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), and other foreign governments have initiated or are considering imposing trade measures on U.S. goods. In January 2020, the United States and the PRC signed a limited trade deal in which the PRC agreed to purchase more products from the U.S. in exchange for a reduction in planned and existing tariffs. Given the uncertainty regarding the scope and duration of these trade actions by the U.S. and other countries, and trade negotiations between the U.S. and the PRC, we cannot predict whether, or to what extent, tariffs and other trade restrictions may be imposed on or otherwise become applicable to our product offerings or supply chain, and the impact of these trade actions on our business remains uncertain. While tariffs and other trade actions by the U.S. and other countries have not yet had a significant impact on our business and we are implementing measures to limit the impact of tariffs on our cost structure, we cannot predict further developments. Tariffs and other trade actions could result in increases in our cost of doing business and in the sale prices of certain of our products and could negatively impact demand for our products, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial conditions.

In addition, our ability to expand successfully in foreign jurisdictions involves other risks, including difficulties in integrating foreign operations, risks associated with entering jurisdictions in which we may have little experience and the day‑to‑day management of a growing and increasingly geographically diverse company. Our investment in foreign jurisdictions within the Lottery segment often entails entering into joint ventures or other business relationships with locally based entities, which can involve additional risks arising from our lack of sole decision‑making authority, our reliance on a partner’s financial condition, inconsistency between our business interests or goals and those of our partners and disputes between us and our partners, see the risk factors above captioned “We may not succeed in realizing the anticipated benefits of our strategic equity investments and relationships.”

We may not realize the operating efficiencies, competitive advantages or financial results that we anticipate from our investments in foreign jurisdictions and our failure to effectively manage the risks associated with our operations in foreign jurisdictions could have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Unfavorable U.S. and international economic conditions, or decreased discretionary spending or travel due to other factors such as terrorist activity or threat thereof, civil unrest, health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks, or public perception

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thereof or other economic or political uncertainties, have adversely affected our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Unfavorable economic conditions, including recession, economic slowdown, decreased liquidity in the financial markets, decreased availability of credit and relatively high rates of unemployment, have had, and may continue to have, a negative effect on our business. Socio-political factors such as terrorist activity or threat thereof, civil unrest or other economic or political uncertainties, or health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks, or public perception thereof that contribute to consumer unease may also result in decreased discretionary spending or travel by consumers and have a negative effect on our businesses. We cannot fully predict the effects that unfavorable social, political and economic conditions, economic uncertainties and public health crises and any resulting decrease in discretionary spending or travel would have on us, as they would be expected to impact our customers, suppliers and business partners in varied ways. For a description of the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 and other public health crises, see the risk factor captioned “The recent COVID-19 pandemic and similar health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks and public perception thereof, significantly disrupted our operations and adversely affected and continue to adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.”

In our Gaming business, especially our Participation gaming business, our revenue is largely driven by players’ disposable incomes and level of gaming activity. Unfavorable economic conditions have reduced, or may reduce, the disposable incomes of casino patrons and resulted, or may result, in fewer patrons visiting casinos, whether land-based or online, and lower amounts spent per casino visit. A further or extended decline in disposable income has resulted in reduced play levels on our Participation gaming machines, causing our results of operations and cash flows from these products to decline. Additionally, higher travel and other costs may adversely affect the number of players visiting our customers’ casinos. Adverse changes in discretionary consumer spending or consumer preferences, resulting in fewer patrons visiting casinos and reduced play levels, could also be driven by factors such as an unstable job market, outbreaks of contagious diseases or public perception thereof or fears of terrorism or other violence. A decline in play levels has negatively impacted the results of operations, cash flows and financial condition of our casino customers and their ability to purchase or lease our products and

services.

Unfavorable economic conditions have also impacted, and could continue to impact, the ability of our Gaming customers to make timely payments to us. These conditions, and the concentration of certain outstanding Gaming segment receivables, may increase our collection risks and materially impact our estimate of receivables allowance for credit losses. We increased our allowance for credit losses by $56 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. In addition, unfavorable economic conditions have caused, and could continue to cause, some of our Gaming customers to temporarily close gaming venues or ultimately declare bankruptcy, which would adversely affect our business. Consistent with other suppliers in the gaming industry, our Gaming business has recently expanded the use of extended payment term financing for gaming machine purchases, and we expect to continue to provide a higher level of extended payment term financing in this business until demand from our customers for such financings abates or our business model changes. These financing arrangements may increase our collection risk, and if customers are not able to pay us, whether as a result of financial difficulties, bankruptcy or otherwise, we may incur provisions for bad debt related to our inability to collect certain receivables. In addition, both extended payment term financing and operating leases result in a delay in our receipt of cash, which reduces our cash balance, liquidity and financial flexibility to respond to changing economic events. Unfavorable economic conditions may also result in volatility in the credit and equity markets. The difficulty or inability of our customers to generate or obtain adequate levels of capital to finance their ongoing operations may reduce their ability to purchase our products and services. Refer to Note 6 for international locations with significant concentrations of our receivables with terms longer than one year.

In our Lottery business, we believe that difficult economic conditions have contributed, or may contribute, to reductions in spending on marketing by our customers and, in certain instances, less favorable terms under our contracts, as many of our customers face budget shortfalls and seek to cut costs.

In our Digital business based on a Participation model, our revenue is largely driven by disposable incomes and level of player activity. Unfavorable economic conditions has reduced and may continue to reduce the disposable incomes of end users consuming the services, which could negatively impact revenues for the Digital business. The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the suspension or cancellation of the majority of sporting events which has and could continue to negatively impact the financial condition of our sportsbook customers, their ability to purchase development and other services, their risk of payment default, or their spending levels as they seek to reduce costs, each of which could negatively impact our Digital business revenue. In addition, suppliers to our Digital business may suffer financial difficulties and may not be able to offer their services and products, which could restrict the provision of our services and negatively impact our revenues. Various gambling regulators have implemented additional responsible and safer gambling measures relating to our Digital casino business as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, including the implementation of bet limits, spin speeds, deposit limits and bonusing, which could negatively impact on our revenues, particularly if additional gambling regulators follow suit.

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There are ongoing concerns regarding the debt burden of certain countries, particularly in Europe and South America, and their ability to meet their future financial obligations, which have resulted in downgrades of the debt ratings for these countries. We currently operate in, and our growth strategy may involve pursuing expansion or business opportunities in certain of these jurisdictions, such as Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Puerto Rico, Turkey and Ukraine among others. These sovereign debt concerns, whether real or perceived, could result in a recession, prolonged economic slowdown, or otherwise negatively impact the general health and stability of the economies in these countries or more broadly. In more severe cases, this could result in a limitation on the availability or flow of capital, thereby restricting our liquidity and negatively impacting our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Risks Relating to our Capital Structure

Our level of indebtedness could adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We are a highly leveraged company. As of December 31, 2020, we had total indebtedness of $9,303 million, net of unamortized discounts and deferred financing costs, consisting primarily of borrowings under our credit agreement, and Senior Notes. As of December 31, 2020, our total available liquidity (excluding our SciPlay business segment) was $850 million, which included $103 million of undrawn availability under SGI’s revolving credit facility. On July 1, 2020, we completed the issuance of $550 million in aggregate principal amount of 2025 Unsecured Notes and on July 17, 2020 we redeemed all $341 million of our 2021 Notes (see Note 15).

Our level of indebtedness could affect our ability to obtain financing or refinance existing indebtedness; require us to dedicate a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to interest and principal payments on our indebtedness, thereby reducing the availability of cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes; increase our vulnerability to adverse general economic, industry or competitive developments or conditions; and limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our businesses and the industries in which we operate or in pursuing our strategic objectives. In addition, we are exposed to the risk of higher interest rates as a significant portion of our borrowings are at variable rates of interest. If interest rates increase, the interest payment obligations under our non-hedged variable rate indebtedness would increase even if the amount borrowed remained the same, and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition would be negatively impacted. All of these factors became more severe given the unfavorable economic conditions and uncertainties and decrease in discretionary spending and consumer travel as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 and could place us at a competitive disadvantage compared to competitors that may have less debt than we do.

Certain of our variable rate debt, including debt under our credit agreement and the SciPlay Revolver, relies on LIBOR as a benchmark for establishing the interest rate. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority announced in 2017 that it intends to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. In addition, other regulators have suggested reforming or replacing other benchmark rates. The discontinuation, reform or replacement of LIBOR or any other benchmark rates may have an unpredictable impact on contractual mechanics in the credit markets or cause disruption to the broader financial markets. Uncertainty as to the nature of such potential discontinuation, reform or replacement may negatively impact the cost of our variable rate debt. We may in the future pursue amendments to the agreements underlying this debt to provide for a transition mechanism or other reference rate in anticipation of LIBOR’s discontinuation, but we may not be able to reach agreement with our lenders on any such amendments. As a result, additional financing to replace our LIBOR-based debt may be unavailable, more expensive or restricted by the terms of our outstanding indebtedness.

We may not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities, to service all of our indebtedness and other obligations, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations, which may not be successful.

Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our indebtedness and other obligations depends on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, which in turn are subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory and other factors that are beyond our control. We may not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness and our other obligations. Our results of operations and general economic and financial conditions have been negatively affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which made it more difficult for us to meet our debt obligations from cash flows from operating activities.

We are required to make scheduled payments of principal on the term loans borrowed under our credit agreement, and our credit agreement requires that a portion of our excess cash flow be applied to prepay amounts borrowed under our credit agreement. We are also required to repay the entire principal amount of our Senior Notes at their maturity (see Note 15). We have also, from time to time, repurchased or otherwise retired or refinanced our debt, through our subsidiaries or otherwise and may continue to do so in the future. Such activities, if any, will depend on prevailing market conditions, contractual restrictions and other factors, and the amounts involved may or may not be material. If we need to refinance all or part of our indebtedness at or before maturity, we cannot assure that we will be able to obtain new financing or to refinance any of our indebtedness on

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commercially reasonable terms or at all, especially under the current unfavorable economic conditions and uncertainties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our lenders, including the lenders participating in our revolving credit facility under our credit agreement or in the SciPlay Revolver, may become insolvent or tighten their lending standards, which could make it more difficult for us to borrow under our revolving credit facility or the SciPlay Revolver or to obtain other financing on favorable terms or at all. Our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition would be adversely affected if we were unable to draw funds under our revolving credit facility or the SciPlay Revolver because of a lender default or to obtain other cost-effective financing. Any default by a lender in its obligation to fund its commitment under our revolving credit facility or the SciPlay Revolver (or its participation in letters of credit) could limit our liquidity to the extent of the defaulting lender’s commitment. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow in the future to meet our commitments, we will be required to adopt one or more alternatives, such as refinancing or restructuring our indebtedness, selling material assets or operations or seeking to raise additional debt or equity capital. We cannot assure that any of these actions could be completed on a timely basis or on satisfactory terms or at all, or that these actions would enable us to continue to satisfy our capital requirements. Moreover, our existing debt agreements contain, and our future debt agreements may contain, restrictive covenants that may prohibit us from adopting these alternatives. Our failure to comply with these covenants could result in an event of default which, if not cured or waived, could result in the acceleration of all of our debt.

Agreements governing our indebtedness impose certain restrictions that may affect our ability to operate our business. Failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in the acceleration of the maturity of our indebtedness and require us to make payments on our indebtedness. Were this to occur, we would not have sufficient cash to pay our accelerated indebtedness.

Agreements governing our indebtedness, including our credit agreement and the SciPlay Revolver and the indentures governing our Senior Notes, impose, and future financing agreements are likely to impose, operating and financial restrictions on our activities that may adversely affect our ability to finance future operations or capital needs or to engage in new business activities. Subject to certain exceptions, our credit facilities and/or indentures restrict our ability to, among other things:

•declare dividends or redeem or repurchase capital stock;

•prepay, redeem or purchase other debt;

•incur liens;

•make loans, guarantees, acquisitions and investments;

•incur additional indebtedness;

•engage in sale and leaseback transactions;

•amend or otherwise alter debt and other material agreements;

•engage in mergers, acquisitions or asset sales;

•engage in transactions with affiliates;

•enter into arrangements that would prohibit us from granting liens or restrict our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends, make loans or transfer assets; and

•alter the business we conduct.

In addition, prior to the Credit Agreement Amendment and the Credit Agreement Extension Agreement, the SGI credit agreement contained a covenant that was tested at the end of each fiscal quarter and required us to not exceed a maximum consolidated net first lien leverage ratio of 5.00x Consolidated EBITDA (as defined in the credit agreement), with this ratio stepping down to 4.75x beginning with the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2020 and 4.50x beginning with the fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2021. We amended the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant in the credit agreement with the requisite lenders under SGI’s revolving credit facility on May 8, 2020 (the “Credit Agreement Amendment”) and subsequently extended the Credit Agreement Amendment on October 8, 2020 (the “Credit Agreement Extension Amendment”) to implement a financial covenant relief period, which extends the relief period through the first quarter of 2022. As a result, (a) SGI is not required to maintain compliance with the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant during the Covenant Relief Period, (b) the step down of the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant following the Covenant Relief Period was revised, © SGI must maintain liquidity (excluding SciPlay) of at least $275 million during the Covenant Relief Period, (d) SGI is restricted in its ability to further incur indebtedness and liens, make restricted payments and investments and prepay junior indebtedness during the Covenant Relief Period, subject to certain exceptions and further subject, in some instances, to maintaining minimum liquidity (excluding SciPlay) of at least $400 million and (e) a LIBOR floor of 0.500% was established on borrowings under the revolving credit facility during the Covenant Relief Period.

The following table summarizes the revised consolidated net first lien leverage ratio and Consolidated EBITDA:

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Revised Consolidated Net First Lien Leverage Ratio Covenant Calculation
Period ending	Revised Consolidated Net First Lien Leverage Ratio Covenant	Consolidated EBITDA multiplier1
3/31/2022	6.00x	4x Q1-2022
6/30/2022	6.00x	2x YTD Q2-2022
9/30/2022	5.75x	1.33x YTD Q3-2022
12/31/2022	5.75x	N/A - Calculated based on the previous 12 month period including the quarter being tested
3/31/2023	5.25x
6/30/2023	5.25x
9/30/2023	4.75x
12/31/2023	4.75x
3/31/2024 and thereafter	4.50x
(1) Consolidated EBITDA is defined in the Credit Agreement Extension Amendment and is calculated as testing year-to-date period-end consolidated EBITDA times multiplier.

Additionally, the SciPlay Revolver requires that SciPlay maintain a maximum total net leverage ratio not to exceed 2.50x and maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of no less than 4.00x. Future financing arrangements may impose similar requirements.

Various risks, uncertainties and events beyond our control could affect our ability to comply with these covenants. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has had, and will continue to have, a negative effect on us, especially in our Gaming and Lottery businesses. Accordingly, we cannot assure that we will continue to maintain liquidity sufficient to satisfy our current obligations or comply with the minimum liquidity requirement set forth in SGC’s credit agreement or return to compliance with the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant following the Covenant Relief Period.

We also cannot assure that we will be granted waivers or amendments to the agreements governing our indebtedness if for any reason we are unable to comply with these obligations or that we will be able to refinance our debt on terms acceptable to us, or at all.

We may not have sufficient cash flows from operating activities, cash on hand and available borrowings under our credit agreement to finance required capital expenditures under new contracts and meet our other cash needs or satisfy our minimum liquidity covenant. These obligations require a significant amount of cash, which would reduce our available liquidity.

Our Gaming operations and Lottery systems businesses generally require significant upfront capital expenditures for gaming machine or lottery terminal assembly, software customization and implementation, systems and equipment installation and telecommunications configuration. In connection with a renewal or bid of a Gaming operations or Lottery systems contract, a customer may seek to obtain new equipment or impose new service requirements, which may require additional capital expenditures in order to retain or win the contract. In connection with the renewal of LNS’ exclusive concession to operate the Italian instant games lottery, we paid our pro rata share, or €160 million (€10 million paid in 2017 and the remaining €150 million paid in 2018), of the €800 million payment LNS was required to make to obtain the concession.

Historically, we have funded these upfront costs through cash flows generated from operations, available cash on hand and borrowings under our credit agreement. In addition, we have seen an increase in lottery RFPs, some involving PMAs, which include economic terms that expose us to increased risk, such as requiring the guarantee of specific income thresholds or significant upfront payments. In addition, to the extent we are compensated under any of our contractual arrangements based on a share of our customers’ revenue rather than payment for our expenses and services, we may incur upfront costs (which may be significant) prior to receipt of any revenue under such arrangements. Our ability to generate revenue and to continue to procure new contracts will depend on, among other things, our then present liquidity levels or our ability to obtain additional financing on commercially reasonable terms, which are negatively affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

If we do not have adequate liquidity or are unable to obtain financing for these upfront costs and other cash needs on favorable terms or at all, we may not be able to bid on certain contracts, which could result in our losing business or restrict our ability to grow, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Moreover, we may not realize the return on investment that we anticipate on new or renewed contracts due to a variety of factors, including lower than anticipated retail sales or amounts wagered, higher than anticipated capital or operating expenses and unanticipated regulatory developments or litigation. We may not have adequate liquidity to pursue other aspects of our

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strategy, including bringing our products and services to new customers or new or underpenetrated geographies (including through equity investments) or pursuing strategic acquisitions. In the event we pursue significant acquisitions or other expansion opportunities, conduct significant repurchases of our outstanding securities, or refinance or repay existing debt, we may need to raise additional capital either through the public or private issuance of equity or debt securities or through additional borrowings under our existing financing arrangements, which sources of funds may not necessarily be available on terms acceptable to us, if at all, especially under the current unfavorable economic conditions and uncertainties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 8, 2020, the Company and the requisite lenders under SGI’s revolving credit facility entered into the Credit Agreement Amendment that, among other things, imposes a minimum liquidity requirement (excluding SciPlay) of at least $275 million during the Covenant Relief Period and further restricts our ability to incur indebtedness and liens, make restricted payments and investments and prepay junior indebtedness during the Covenant Relief Period, subject to certain exceptions and further subject, in some instances, to maintaining minimum liquidity (excluding SciPlay) of at least $400 million. The Covenant Relief Period was extended for an additional three quarters on October 8, 2020 when SGC and the requisite lenders under SGI’s revolving credit facility entered into the Credit Agreement Extension Amendment. See Note 1 for additional details regarding the Credit Agreement Amendment and the Credit Agreement Extension Amendment. Therefore, even if we do have liquidity available to support our current cash needs, we may not be able to access that liquidity while still remaining in compliance with the minimum liquidity covenant. We cannot assure that we will be granted waivers or amendments to the minimum liquidity covenant, or will be able to obtain additional liquidity to cure such a violation, if for any reason we are unable to comply with that obligation.

Risks Relating to our Business and our Industries

We operate in highly competitive industries, and our success depends on our ability to effectively compete with numerous domestic and foreign businesses.

Gaming

Our Gaming business faces significant competition, not only from traditional gaming suppliers, but also from a number of other domestic and foreign providers, some of which have substantially greater financial resources and/or experience than we do. In some cases, we compete against gaming operators, including illegal or unregulated operators. Additionally, we face competition from smaller gaming companies that have established certain competitive products in recent years and are able to focus their resources on developing a smaller number of high-performing products.

We compete on the basis of the content, features, quality, functionality, accuracy, reliability, price and financing terms of our products and services, and the responsiveness of our services. If we do not consistently deliver popular, high-quality games in a timely manner, or if consumers prefer competing products, our business might suffer. Consumer preferences for games are usually cyclical and difficult to predict, and even the most successful content remains popular for only limited periods of time, unless refreshed with new content or otherwise enhanced. In order to remain competitive, we must continuously develop new products or enhancements to our existing products. These products or enhancements may not be well-received by consumers, even if well-reviewed and of high quality. Further, competitors may develop content that imitates or competes with our best-selling games, potentially taking sales away from them or reducing our ability to charge the same prices we have historically charged for our products. We have experienced pricing pressures in the past, including in 2020 and expect to continue to face pricing pressure in 2021. These competing products may take a larger share of consumer spending than anticipated, which could cause product sales to fall below expectations. We also compete based on the extent of our sales, service, marketing and distribution channels. We on occasion provide extended payment term financing for product purchases, and we expect to continue to provide extended payment term financing until the impacts of COVID-19 and demand for such financing abate. We have also offered customers discounts and other offers and modified pricing and other contractual terms in connection with the sale or placement of our products and services. Our competitors may provide a greater amount of financing or better offers and terms than we do, and this may impact demand for our Gaming products and services. We cannot assure that competitive pressure will not cause us to increase the incentives that we offer to our customers or agree to modify contractual terms in ways that are unfavorable to us, which could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We also compete to obtain space and favorable placement on casino gaming floors, and some of our product lines may compete against each other for this space. Consolidation of casino and other operators, increased competition among operators and reductions in capital expenditures by operators have significantly increased the level of competition among gaming suppliers and may do so in the future. Casino operators focus on performance, longevity, player appeal and price when making their purchasing decisions. Competitors with a larger installed base of gaming machines and more game themes than ours may have an advantage in obtaining and retaining placements in casinos. Our Shufflers also compete against hand shuffling, which remains the most competitive shuffling option for casino card games around the world.

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We also face high levels of competition in the supply of products and services for newly legalized gaming jurisdictions and for openings of new or expanded casinos. Our success depends on our ability to successfully enter new markets and compete successfully for new business, especially in the face of declining demand and lengthened cycles for gaming machine replacements as a result of COVID-19 disruptions.

Lottery

Our Lottery business faces competition from a number of domestic and foreign businesses, some of which have substantially greater financial resources than we do, which impacts our ability to win new contracts and renew existing contracts. In addition, the U.S. lottery industry has matured with 48 U.S. jurisdictions offering instant game lotteries and/or draw lotteries. As some jurisdictions seek to privatize or outsource lottery operations (including partial privatizations through PMAs or otherwise), we face competition from both traditional and new competitors with respect to these opportunities. In some cases, we may find it necessary or desirable to enter into strategic relationships with third parties, including competitors, and may be required to commit significant sums of money in order to pursue these opportunities.

We continue to operate in an industry of intense price-based competition, which has affected and could continue to affect the number and the profitability of the lottery contracts we win. We believe our principal competitors in the instant lottery product business have increased, and are expected to continue to increase, their production capacity, resulting in pricing pressures in the instant lottery product business. This may adversely affect our ability to win or renew instant lottery product contracts or may reduce the profitability of instant lottery product contracts that we do win. We also compete in the international instant lottery product business with low-price printers whose quality we believe is lower than ours in regulated environments where laws are being reinterpreted to create competition from non-traditional lottery vendors and products. Our U.S. instant lottery product business could be adversely affected if additional foreign competitors operating in Canada export their lottery products to the U.S. or if other foreign competitors establish printing facilities in the U.S. or Canada to supply the U.S.

We face increased price competition in our Lottery systems business from our two principal competitors in that business. This may adversely affect our ability to win or renew lottery systems contracts or reduce the profitability of lottery systems contracts that we do win. We routinely bid against IGT and Intralot in lottery systems bids. Since 2016, we have taken away several of their incumbent supplier contracts including Arizona lottery systems (IGT), Kansas lottery systems (IGT), Turkey sports betting system (Intralot), and Turkey national lottery systems (IGT).

Any future success of our Lottery business will also depend, in part, on the success of the lottery industry in attracting and retaining players in the face of increased competition for these players’ entertainment dollars, and our own success in developing innovative products and systems to achieve this goal. Our failure to achieve this goal could reduce our revenue from our Lottery operations. Additionally, pressure on state and other government budgets could lead to other forms of gaming being legalized, which could adversely impact our Lottery business.

SciPlay

SciPlay, which includes social casino games and from which we derive substantially all of our SciPlay revenue, is a rapidly evolving industry with low barriers to entry. Businesses can easily launch online or mobile platforms and applications at nominal cost by using commercially available software or partnering with various established companies in these markets. The market for our games is also characterized by rapid technological developments, frequent launches of new games and features, changes in player needs and behavior, disruption by innovative entrants and evolving business models and industry standards. As a result, our industry is constantly changing games and business models in order to adopt and optimize new technologies, increase cost efficiency and adapt to player preferences.

Successful execution of our strategy depends on our continuous ability to attract and retain players, adapt to the emergence of new mobile hardware or operating systems, expand the market for our games, maintain a technological edge and offer new capabilities to players. We also compete with social gaming companies, including those that offer social casino games such as Playtika, Product Madness/Big Fish Games (Aristocrat), Zynga Inc., DoubleU Games/Double Down Interactive, GSN/Bash Gaming and Huuuge games, some of which have no connection to regulated real money gaming, and many of those companies have a base of existing players that is larger than ours. In some cases, we compete against real money gaming operators who have expanded their games to include social casino games and have in the past leveraged their land-based gaming relationship with us to license social casino game content from us. In those cases, customers of such real money gaming operators may choose to play our content as it is offered by the operator and not as it is offered by our social casino games, detrimentally impacting our results.

Some of our current and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, greater financial, technical, and other resources and, in some cases, the ability to rapidly combine online platforms with traditional staffing and contingent worker solutions. These companies may use these advantages

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to develop different platforms and services to compete with our games, spend more on advertising and brand marketing, invest more in research and development or respond more quickly and effectively than we do to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, regulatory conditions or player preferences or requirements. As a result, our players may decide to stop playing our games or switch to our competitors’ games.

Moreover, current and future competitors may also make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with others, including our current or future third-party suppliers. By doing so, these competitors may increase their ability to meet the needs of existing or prospective players. These developments could limit our ability to obtain revenue from existing and new buyers. If we are unable to compete effectively, successfully and at reasonable cost against our existing and future competitors, our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition could be adversely impacted.

We offer players regular free play and frequent discounts for purchases of virtual coins to extend play in connection with our social casino gaming business. We cannot assure that competitive pressure will not cause us to increase the incentives that we offer to our players, which could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Digital

Our Digital business is also subject to significant competition. Our RMG business focuses on the supply of game content to online casino operators, and there are a number of competitors in that industry, including from illegal or unregulated operators.

On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court of the U.S. overturned the PASPA, a decision that opened up a path to legalization of sports wagering across the country. Following this ruling, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports wagering, with some of those states permitting online sports wagering. Other states are considering legislation that would permit legal sports wagering, both land based and online. As a result of the change in regulations, we expanded, and expect to further expand, our sports wagering business.

The ongoing evolution of regulations governing sports wagering could lead to increased competition over time as large land-based gaming operators, games companies and other online entertainment companies may seek to enter the sports wagering market. Such organizations, some with long established and trusted brands, may buy or build capabilities to allow them to effectively compete with us or our customers. This could lead to a reduction in customers’ revenue and profitability, which would in turn negatively impact our financial performance. Several of our competitors, such as IGT and Kambi have already taken steps to expand their presence in the sports wagering market. We are unable to predict the impact additional competition, including the expansion of sports wagering, will have on our business. The success of sports wagering within our RMG business also depends on the strength of our customers’ brands. Maintaining and enhancing these brands requires significant expense. As the market becomes more competitive, the value of these brands may not be maintained or enhanced.

In jurisdictions that authorize internet gaming, we cannot assure that we will be successful in offering our technology, content and services to internet gaming operators as we expect to face intense competition from our traditional competitors in the gaming and lottery industries and a number of other domestic and foreign providers (or, in some cases, the operators themselves), some of which have substantially greater financial resources and/or experience in this area than we do. In addition, there is a risk that the authorization of the sale of gaming and lottery offerings via interactive channels in a particular jurisdiction could, under certain circumstances, adversely impact our Gaming and Lottery offerings through traditional channels in such jurisdiction. Any such adverse impact would be magnified to the extent we are not involved in, and generating revenue from, the provision of interactive gaming and lottery products or services in such jurisdiction.

In order to stay competitive in our Digital business, we will need to continue to create and market game content and sports betting solutions that attract players and invest in new and emerging technologies. Some of our competitors may be more willing to provide internet wagering (including sports wagering) in countries where the relevant laws and regulations are unclear or not uniformly enforced, putting us at a competitive disadvantage if we do not provide services related to internet wagering (including sports wagering) in such countries.

We offer and have in the past offered customers discounts, free trials and free spins in connection with our Digital business. We cannot assure that competitive pressure will not cause us to increase the incentives that we offer to our customers, which could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We heavily depend on our ability to win, maintain and renew our customer contracts, including our long-term Lottery contracts, and we could lose substantial revenue if we are unable to renew certain of our contracts on substantially similar terms or at all.

Generally, our Lottery contracts contain initial multi-year terms, with optional renewal periods at the discretion of the customer. Upon the expiration of any such contract, including any extensions thereof, a new contract may be awarded through a

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competitive bidding process. Conversely, in some instances, Lottery customers are authorized to extend contracts beyond the term initially agreed in the applicable contract without subjecting the contract to competitive bidding, thereby eliminating the possibility of obtaining that new business.

We cannot assure that our current contracts will be extended or that we will be awarded new contracts as a result of competitive bidding processes or otherwise in the future. In addition, it is common for competitors to protest the award of Lottery contracts to us. Such protests could delay or prevent our ability to enter into a new contract. In addition, the recent outbreak of COVID-19 has caused some lotteries to delay the competitive bidding process, which in turn has delayed awards of new contracts. The termination, expiration or failure to renew one or more of our contracts could cause us to lose substantial revenue, which could have an adverse effect on our ability to win or renew other contracts or pursue growth initiatives. We cannot assure that new or renewed contracts will contain terms that are as favorable as our current terms or will contemplate the same scope of products and services as our current contracts, and any less favorable contract terms or diminution in scope could negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. For example, we are currently in negotiations with the Pennsylvania Lottery, our largest Lottery customer, on both the Lottery Systems and Instant Products - Participation SGEP contracts, and we cannot assure that these contracts will be renewed or will be renewed with terms that are as favorable as our current terms; the termination or renewal on less favorable terms could negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. For additional information regarding the potential expiration dates of certain of our more significant Lottery contracts, see the table in “Lottery Segment” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We are also required by certain of our customers to provide surety or performance bonds in connection with our contracts. As of December 31, 2020, we had $253 million of outstanding performance bonds. We cannot assure that we will continue to be able to obtain surety or performance bonds on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Our inability to provide such bonds would materially and adversely affect our ability to renew existing or obtain new Lottery contracts.

A substantial portion of our Gaming revenue depends on repeat customers. In certain regions, our business may be concentrated with a small number of customers, such as our U.K. LBO business. We cannot assure that our current contracts will be extended or that we will be awarded new contracts.

Given the increased competition in the sports wagering landscape in the U.S., it is crucial that we remain innovative in this field in order to preserve our first-mover advantage, maintain current contracts and gain new contracts.

Our success depends upon our ability to adapt to, and offer products and services that keep pace with, changing technology and evolving industry standards.

Our ability to anticipate or respond to changing technology and evolving industry standards and to develop and introduce new and enhanced products and services, including, but not limited to, gaming and lottery content, gaming machines, CMSs, table products and interactive gaming products and services, on a timely basis or at all is a significant factor affecting our ability to remain competitive, retain existing contracts or business and expand and attract new customers and players. We cannot assure that we will achieve the necessary technological advances or have the financial resources needed to introduce new products or services on a timely basis or at all.

Introducing new and innovative products and services requires us to adapt and refine our manufacturing, operations and delivery capabilities to meet the needs of our product innovation. If we cannot efficiently adapt our manufacturing infrastructure to meet the needs associated with our product innovations, or if we are unable to develop products or upgrade our production capacity in a timely manner, our business could be negatively impacted. In the past, we have experienced delays in launching new products and services due to the complex or innovative technologies embedded in our products and services. Such delays can adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We invest significant resources in our R&D efforts, which may not lead to successful or commercially viable new technologies, services or products.

We have invested, and intend to make future investments of, significant resources in R&D efforts. We invest in a number of areas, including product development for game and system‑based hardware, software and game content. In addition, because of the sophistication of our newer products and the resources committed to their development, they are generally more expensive to produce and, for SciPlay and Digital technologies, to maintain. If our new services and products do not gain market acceptance or the increase in the average selling price of these new products is not proportionate to the increase in production cost, in each case as compared to our prior products, or if the average cost of production does not go down over time, whether by reason of long-term customer acceptance, our ability to find greater efficiencies in the manufacturing process as we refine our production capabilities or a general decrease in the cost of the technology, our margins will suffer and could negatively impact our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. We cannot assure that our investment in R&D will lead to successful new technologies or products. If a new service or product is not successful, we may not recover our development, regulatory approval or promotion costs.

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Our success depends on our ability to produce new and innovative products and services that respond to customer demand and create strong and sustained player appeal.

Our success depends upon our ability to respond to dynamic customer demand by producing new and innovative products and services. The process of developing new products and services is inherently complex and uncertain. If we fail to accurately anticipate customer needs and end user preferences through the development of new products and services, we could lose business to our competitors, which would adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Our businesses develop and source game content both internally and through third‑party suppliers. We also seek to secure third‑party brands for incorporation into our game content. We believe that creative and appealing game content produces more revenue for our gaming machine customers and provides them with a competitive advantage, which in turn enhances our revenue and our ability to attract new business and to retain existing business. In our Lottery business, we believe that innovative game concepts and game content, such as multiplier games and game content that incorporates licensed brands, can enhance the revenue of our lottery customers and distinguish us from our competitors. We cannot assure that we will be able to sustain the success of our existing game content or effectively develop or obtain from third parties game content or licensed brands that will be widely accepted both by our customers and players.

Our success also depends on creating products and services with strong and sustained player appeal. We are under continuous pressure to anticipate player reactions to, and acceptance of, our new products, avoid declining play levels on our leased gaming machines and continue to provide successful products that generate a high level of play. In some cases, a new game or gaming machine will only be accepted by our casino or interactive gaming customers if we can demonstrate that it is likely to produce more revenue and Net win and/or has more player appeal than our existing products and services or our competitors’ products and services. WAP, premium and daily fee Participation gaming machines are replaced on short notice by casino operators if they do not meet and sustain revenue and profitability expectations. Customers may cancel pending orders with us if our products are not performing to expectations at other casinos.

In addition, the social gaming landscape is rapidly evolving and is characterized by major fluctuations in the popularity of social products and platforms, such as the dramatic increase in the popularity of mobile platforms. We may be unable to develop products at a rate necessary to respond to these changes, or at all, or that anticipate the interests of social players. Likewise, our SciPlay offerings operate largely through Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft platforms. If alternative platforms increase in popularity, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to timely create compatible versions of our products.

Competition is intense in the digital gaming landscape. The increased importance of digital content delivery in our industry increases the potential competition in our SciPlay and Digital businesses, as the minimum capital needed to produce and publish a digitally delivered game, particularly a new game for mobile platforms, may be significantly less than that needed to produce and publish one that is purchased through retail distribution. Recently, there has been additional significant competition in the sports wagering market as a result of the legislative changes that have encouraged new market participants. Refer to “Government Regulation - Digital” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of such legislative changes. As more competitors enter the market, our operating results may be negatively impacted.

We may not succeed in realizing the anticipated benefits of our strategic equity investments and relationships.

Under certain circumstances we pursue growth through strategic equity investments, including joint ventures, as a means to, among other things, gain access to new and important geographies, business opportunities and technical expertise, while simultaneously offering the potential for reducing capital requirements.

Our strategic equity relationships include investments in LNS, Northstar New Jersey, Hellenic Lotteries, GLB, CSG and RCN. For additional information regarding our equity investments, see Note 12.

We may not realize the anticipated benefits of these strategic equity investments and relationships and other strategic investments and relationships that we may make or enter into, or may not realize them in the timeframes expected. These arrangements pose significant risks that could have a negative effect on our operations, including: the potential diversion of our management’s attention from our core business; the potential failure to realize anticipated synergies, economies of scale or other value associated with these arrangements; unanticipated costs and other unanticipated events or circumstances, including losses for which we may be responsible for our pro rata portion; possible adverse effects on our operating results during any integration process; impairment charges if our strategic equity investments or relationships are not as successful as we originally anticipate; and our potential inability to achieve the intended objectives of these arrangements.

Furthermore, our strategic equity investments and other strategic relationships pose risks arising from our reliance on our partners and our lack of sole decision‑making authority, which may give rise to disputes between us and our partners. For instance, our investments in LNS and Northstar New Jersey are minority investments in ventures whose largest equity holder is

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Lottomatica and Gtech Corporation (now known as IGT), respectively, and, although certain corporate actions require our prior consent, we do not unilaterally control decisions relating to the governance of these entities. We are party to strategic agreements with a subsidiary of Playtech Limited relating to gaming machines that contemplate our license of, and reliance on, the subsidiary’s back‑end technology platform in certain jurisdictions, particularly in the U.K. Our equity partners, licensors and other third parties with which we have strategic relationships may have economic or business interests or goals that are inconsistent with our interests and goals, take actions contrary to our objectives or policies, undergo a change of control, experience financial and other difficulties or be unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations under our arrangements.

The failure to avoid or mitigate the risks described above or other risks associated with such arrangements could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We may not achieve some or all of the anticipated benefits of SciPlay being a standalone public company, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We may not be able to achieve all of the anticipated strategic and financial benefits expected as a result of SciPlay being a standalone public company, or such benefits may be delayed or not occur at all. The anticipated benefits include the following:

•allowing investors to evaluate the distinct merits, performance and future prospects of the SciPlay business, independent of our other businesses;

•improving the SciPlay business’s strategic and operational flexibility and increasing management focus as SciPlay continues to implement its strategic plan and allowing the SciPlay business to respond more effectively to different player needs and the competitive environment for its business;

•allowing the SciPlay business to adopt a capital structure better suited to its financial profile and business needs, without competing for capital with our other businesses;

•creating an independent equity structure that will facilitate the SciPlay business’s ability to effect future acquisitions utilizing its capital stock; and

•facilitating incentive compensation arrangements for employees more directly tied to the performance of the SciPlay business, and enhancing employee hiring and retention by, among other things, improving the alignment of management and employee incentives with performance and growth objectives of the SciPlay business.

We may not achieve the anticipated benefits of SciPlay being a standalone public company for a variety of reasons, and it could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

The consummation of the SciPlay initial public offering (“IPO”) in 2019 diluted our economic interest in the SciPlay business, and as a result we only benefit from a portion of any profits and growth of that business, and from any dividends and other distributions from that business, if any. We currently do not expect SciPlay to declare or pay any cash dividends, other than tax distributions and certain cash distributions related to the impact of taxes pursuant to the TRA. If SciPlay discontinues the payment of, or is unable to pay, such distributions to us, this will reduce our available liquidity as SciPlay generates 41% of our operating cash flows. Furthermore, the terms of any indebtedness incurred by SciPlay business may, and the terms of the SciPlay Revolver will, limit the ability of SciPlay business to pay dividends or make other distributions to us, or to amend the agreements between SciPlay and us and our other subsidiaries.

We depend on our suppliers and contract manufacturers, and any failure of these parties to meet our performance and quality standards or requirements could cause us to incur additional costs or lose customers.

Our production of instant lottery products, in particular, depends upon a continuous supply of raw materials, supplies, power and natural resources. Our operating results could be adversely affected by an interruption or cessation in the supply of these items or a serious quality assurance lapse, including as a result of the insolvency of any of our key suppliers.

Similarly, the operation of our instant ticket printing presses and the manufacture and maintenance of our gaming machines and gaming and lottery systems are dependent upon a regular and continuous supply of raw materials and components, many of which are manufactured or produced outside of the U.S. Certain of the components we use are customized for our products. The assembly of certain of our products and other hardware is performed by third parties. Any interruption or cessation in the supply of these items or services or any material quality assurance lapse with respect thereto could materially adversely affect our ability to fulfill customer orders, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. We may be unable to find adequate replacements for our suppliers within a reasonable time frame, on favorable commercial terms or at all. The impact of the foregoing may be magnified as we continue to seek to streamline our gaming supply chain by reducing the number of our suppliers. Further, manufacturing costs may unexpectedly increase and we may not be able to successfully recover any or all of such cost increases.

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In our Lottery systems business, we transmit certain wagering data using cellular technology and satellite transponders, generally pursuant to long-term contracts. The technical failure of any of these cellular or satellite services would require us to obtain other communication services, including other cellular or satellite access. In some cases, we employ backup systems to limit our exposure in the event of such a failure. While these networks are inherently highly redundant, we cannot assure access to such other cellular services or satellites or, if available, the ability to obtain the use of such other cellular services or satellites on favorable terms or in a timely manner. While cellular and satellite failures are infrequent, the operation of each is outside of our control.

In addition, in all of our businesses, we rely upon a number of significant third-party suppliers and vendors delivering parts, equipment and services on schedule in order for us to meet our contractual commitments. Furthermore, we outsource the manufacturing of certain of our sub-assemblies to third parties in the U.S., Europe, Central America and Asia. The willingness of such third parties to provide their services to us may be affected by various factors. Changes in law or regulation in any jurisdiction in which we operate may make the provision of key services to us unlawful in such jurisdictions. To the extent that third parties are unwilling or unable to provide services to us, this may have an adverse impact on our operations, financial performance and prospects. Failure of these third parties to meet their delivery commitments could result in us being in breach of, and subsequently losing, the affected customer orders, which loss could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. We rely on network and/or telecommunications services for certain of our products. For instance, any disruption to our network or telecommunications could impact our linked or networked games, which could reduce our revenue.

In our Digital sports business, we rely on providers of third party sports data feeds. The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the suspension or cancellation of the majority of sporting events which has and could continue to negatively impact the financial condition of our sportsbook customers, their ability to purchase development and other services, their risk of payment default, or their spending levels as they seek to reduce costs, each of which could negatively impact our Digital business revenue.

In our Lottery, SciPlay and Digital businesses, we often rely on third-party data center providers to, among other things, host our remote game servers. Our Lottery, SciPlay and Digital businesses could be adversely impacted by breaches of or disruptions to these third-party data centers, including through disruptions in our RMG and lottery businesses, potential service level penalties with respect to our customers, reputational harm, the disclosure of proprietary information or the information of our customers or the theft of our or our customers assets, and to the extent any such data center provider was unable or unwilling to continue to provide services to us.

In certain regions, we enter into agreements with local distributors for the distribution of our land-based gaming products to one or more customers. Changes to these distributor relationships, including modification or termination of our agreements or difficulties with any such distributor could prevent us from delivering products or services to our customers on a timely basis, or at all, and could negatively impact our business. Additionally, the outbreak of COVID-19 and any resulting unfavorable social, political and economic conditions have negatively impacted our suppliers and contract manufacturers in varied ways in different communities, which could lead to interruption or cessation of services provided to us. For more information on the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19, see the risk factor captioned “The recent COVID-19 pandemic and similar health epidemics, contagious disease outbreaks and public perception thereof, significantly disrupted our operations and adversely affected and continue to adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.”

Our SciPlay business largely depends upon our relationships with key third-party platform providers, who we rely on to make our games available to players and to collect revenue, and changes in those relationships could negatively impact our SciPlay business.

In our SciPlay business, our services operate largely through Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon platforms, with some games available on the Microsoft platform, which also serve as significant online distribution platforms for our games. In 2020 and 2019, substantially all of our SciPlay revenue was generated by players using those platforms. Consequently, our expansion and prospects of our SciPlay offerings depend on our continued relationships with these providers, and any emerging platform providers that are widely adopted by our target player base. Our relationships with Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are not governed by contracts but rather by these platform providers’ standard terms and conditions for application developers, which govern the promotion, distribution and operation of games and other applications on their platforms, and which the platform providers can change unilaterally on short or without notice. Our SciPlay business will be adversely impacted if we are unable to continue these relationships in the future or if the terms and conditions offered by these providers are altered to our disadvantage. For instance, if any of these providers were to increase their fees, our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition would suffer.

    In addition, our SciPlay business would be harmed if:

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•these platform providers discontinue or limit our access to their platforms;

•governments or private parties, such as internet providers, impose bandwidth restrictions or increase charges or restrict or prohibit access to those platforms;

•these platforms decline in popularity;

•these platforms modify their current discovery mechanisms, communication channels available to developers, respective terms of service or other policies, including fees;

•these platforms impose restrictions or make it more difficult for players to buy coins, chips and cards; or

•these platforms change how the personal information of players is made available to developers or develop their own competitive offerings.

If alternative platforms increase in popularity, we could be adversely impacted if we fail to create compatible versions of our games in a timely manner, or if we fail to establish a relationship with such alternative platforms. Likewise, if our platform providers alter their operating platforms, we could be adversely impacted as our offerings may not be compatible with the altered platforms or may require significant and costly modifications in order to become compatible. If our platform providers were to develop competitive offerings, either on their own or in cooperation with one or more competitors, our growth prospects could be negatively impacted. If our platform providers do not perform these functions in accordance with our platform agreements, we could be adversely impacted.

In the past, some of these platform providers have been unavailable for short periods of time or experienced issues with their features that permit our players to purchase coins, chips and cards. For example, in the second and third quarters of 2018, we were negatively impacted by data privacy protection changes implemented by Facebook, which impaired our players’ ability to access their previously acquired coins, chips and cards and purchase additional coins, chips and cards. If similar events recur on a prolonged basis or other similar issues arise that impact players’ ability to download our games, access social features or purchase coins, chips and cards, it could have a material adverse effect on our revenue, operating results and brand.

Our future results of operations may be negatively impacted by ownership changes and consolidation in the gaming industry, including by casino operators.

As repeat customers represent a substantial part of our Gaming business revenue, our business, results of operations, cash flow and financial condition could be negatively affected if our casino customers are sold to or merge with other entities. Such entities may purchase more products and services from our competitors, reduce spending on our products or cause downward pricing pressures. Consolidation among casino operators could result in order cancellations or a slowing in the replacement cycle for existing gaming machines, or could require our current customers to purchase our competitors’ products, any of which could negatively impact our Gaming business.

Our results of operations fluctuate due to seasonality and other factors and, therefore, our periodic operating results are not guarantees of future performance.

Our results of operations can fluctuate due to seasonal trends and other factors. Sales of our gaming machines to casinos are generally strongest in the spring and slowest in the summer, while revenue from our Participation gaming machines is generally strongest in the spring and summer. Player activity for our SciPlay business is generally slower in the second and third quarters of the year, particularly during the summer months. Player activity for our Digital business, specifically digital casino operations, is generally slower in the third quarter during the summer months and is generally higher in the fourth quarter and varies based on seasons of different popular sports such as soccer, professional and collegiate football, and professional and collegiate basketball. Certain other seasonal trends and factors that may cause our results to fluctuate include: the geographies where we operate; holiday and vacation seasons; climate; weather; economic and political conditions; timing of the release of new products; significant equipment sales or the introduction of gaming or lottery activities in new jurisdictions or to new customers; the size and duration of draw lottery game jackpots; and other factors.

In addition, it is difficult for us to forecast the timing of revenue from sports wagering in our Digital business because our sports wagering customers typically invest substantial time, money and other resources researching their needs and available competitive alternatives before deciding to purchase our solutions. Typically, the larger the potential sale, the more time, money and other resources will be invested by customers. Our sports wagering sales cycles also vary depending on the products and technology our prospective customers are looking to license. As a result, it may take many months after our first contact with a customer before a sale can actually be completed. In addition, we rely on our technology team to integrate our sports wagering software with that of the customer’s, and therefore, our sales efforts are vulnerable to delays at both the customer level and the integration level. During these long sales cycles, events may occur that affect the size or timing of the launch, or even cause it to be cancelled, including: purchasing decisions may be postponed during periods of economic uncertainty; we or our competitors may announce or introduce new solutions; our competitors may offer lower prices; technology problems of customers may arise to slow deadlines or launch targets; or budget and purchasing priorities of

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customers may change. If any of these events were to occur, sales of our sports wagering solutions or services may be cancelled or delayed, which would reduce our revenue and income.

In light of the foregoing, results for any quarter are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved in another quarter or for the full fiscal year. We cannot assure that the seasonal trends and other factors that have impacted our historical results will repeat in future periods as we cannot influence or forecast many of these factors.

Risks Relating to our Technology

Our success depends on the security and integrity of the systems and products we offer, and security breaches or other disruptions could compromise our information or the information of our customers and expose us to liability, which would cause our business and reputation to suffer.

We believe that our success depends, in large part, on providing secure products, services and systems to our customers, and on our ability to avoid, detect, replicate and correct software and hardware anomalies and fraudulent manipulation of our products and services. Our businesses sometimes involve the storage, processing and transmission of players’ proprietary, confidential and personal information. We also maintain certain other proprietary and confidential information relating to our business and personal information of our personnel. All of our products and services are designed with security features to prevent fraudulent activity. However, we cannot guarantee that these security features will effectively stop all fraudulent activities. Despite our security measures, our products, services and systems are vulnerable to attacks by hackers, customers, retailers, vendors or employees or breached due to malfeasance or other disruptions. Any security breach or incident that we experience could result in unauthorized access to, misuse of, or unauthorized acquisition of our or our players’ data, the loss, corruption or alteration of this data, interruptions in our operations or damage to our computers or systems or those of our players or third-party platforms. Any of these could expose us to claims, litigation, fines and potential liability. Our ability to prevent anomalies and monitor and ensure the quality and integrity of our products and services is periodically reviewed and enhanced, but may not be sufficient to prevent future attacks, breaches or disruptions. Similarly, we regularly assess the adequacy of our security systems, including the security of our games and software, to protect against any material loss to any of our customers and our players, as well as the integrity of our products and services to end users and the integrity of our games to players. Expanded use of the internet and other interactive technologies may result in increased security risks for us and our customers. We cannot assure that our business or a business we acquire will not be or has not been affected by fraudulent activities or a security breach or lapse, which could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Online transactions may be subject to sophisticated schemes to defraud, launder money or other illegal activities. There is a risk that our products or systems may be used for those purposes by our customers’ players. There is also a risk that we will be subject to fraudulent activities by our employees. In addition, our gaming machines have experienced anomalies and fraudulent manipulation in the past. Games and gaming machines may be replaced by casinos and other gaming machine operators if they do not perform according to expectations, or they may be shut down by regulators. The occurrence of anomalies in, or fraudulent manipulation of, our gaming machines or our other products and services (including our SciPlay and Digital products and services), may give rise to claims from players or customers, may lead to claims for lost revenue and profits and related litigation by our customers and may subject us to investigation or other action by regulatory authorities, including suspension or revocation of our licenses or other disciplinary action. Additionally, in the event of the occurrence of any such issues with our products and services, substantial engineering and marketing resources may be diverted from other projects to correct these issues, which may delay other projects and the achievement of our strategic objectives.

An increasing number of online services have disclosed security breaches, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks on portions of their services. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not foreseeable or recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any actual or perceived breach of our security, or the security of a business we acquire, occurs, public perception of the effectiveness of our security measures and brand, or the security measures and brand of a business we acquire, could be harmed, and we could lose players. Data security breaches and other data security incidents may also result from non-technical means, for example, actions by employees or contractors. Any compromise of our security, or the security of a business we acquire, could result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws, regulatory or other governmental investigations, enforcement actions, and legal and financial exposure, including potential contractual liability that is not always limited to the amounts covered by our insurance. Any such compromise could also result in damage to our reputation and a loss of confidence in our security measures. Any of these effects could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Our business depends on the protection of our intellectual property and proprietary information.

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We believe that our success depends, in part, on protecting our intellectual property in the U.S. and in foreign countries. Our intellectual property includes certain patents, trademarks and copyrights relating to our products and services (including gaming machines, interactive gaming products, table games, shufflers and accessories, instant lottery products and gaming and lottery systems), and proprietary or confidential information that is not subject to patent or similar protection. Our success may depend, in part, on our ability to obtain protection for the trademarks, trade dress, names, logos or symbols under which we market our products and to obtain copyright and patent protection for our proprietary technologies, designs, software and innovations. We cannot assure that we will be able to build and maintain consumer value in our trademarks, obtain patent, trademark or copyright protection or that any patent, trademark or copyright will provide us with competitive advantages. In particular, the U.S. Supreme Court recently tightened the standard for patent eligibility of software patents. Despite revised U.S. Patent and Trademark Office guidelines in 2019, similar decisions in the future may negatively impact the validity or enforceability of certain of our patents, our ability to protect our inventions, innovations and new technology and the value of our substantial patent portfolio. Under a patent cross-licensing agreement with IGT, which relates to technology that is used in substantially all of our gaming machines, we can offer games using patented game features from the patent portfolios of other members of IGT’s slot game features program, and such members can likewise offer games using patented game features from our patent portfolio. This arrangement may diminish the competitive advantage our slot games may derive from our patents.

Our intellectual property protects the integrity of our games, systems, products and services. For example, our intellectual property is designed to ensure the security of the printing of our instant lottery products and to provide simple and secure validation of our lottery tickets. Competitors may independently develop similar or superior products, software or systems, which could negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. In cases where our technology or product is not protected by enforceable intellectual property rights, such independent development may result in a significant diminution in the value of such technology or product.

We also rely on trade secrets and proprietary knowledge. We enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and independent contractors regarding our trade secrets and proprietary information, but we cannot assure that the obligation to maintain the confidentiality of our trade secrets and proprietary information will be honored.

We are currently making, and in the future may make, claims of infringement, invalidity or enforceability against third parties. For example, with the emergence of interactive gaming, we have increased enforcement against parties that infringe our intellectual property.

This enforcement could:

•cause us to incur greater costs and expenses in the protection of our intellectual property;

•potentially negatively impact our intellectual property rights;

•cause one or more of our patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property interests to be ruled or rendered unenforceable or invalid; or

•divert management’s attention and our resources.

We rely on the ability to use the intellectual property rights of third parties.

We rely on products, technologies and intellectual property that we license from third parties, including from our competitors, for use in our Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital businesses. Substantially all of our gaming machines and portions of our SciPlay and Digital offerings and services use intellectual property licensed from third parties. The future success of our business may depend, in part, on our ability to obtain, retain and/or expand licenses for popular technologies and games in a competitive market. We cannot assure that these third‑party licenses, or support for such licensed products and technologies, will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. In the event that we cannot renew and/or expand existing licenses, we may be required to discontinue or limit our use of the products that include or incorporate the licensed intellectual property.

Some of our license agreements contain minimum guaranteed royalty payments to the third party. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenue to offset the minimum guaranteed royalty payments, it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Our license agreements typically contain restrictions on our ability to use or transfer the licensed rights in connection with certain strategic transactions. Certain of our license agreements grant the licensor rights to audit our use of the licensor’s intellectual property. Disputes with licensors over uses or terms could result in the payment of additional royalties or penalties by us, cancellation or non‑renewal of the underlying license or litigation.

The regulatory review process and licensing requirements also may preclude us from using technologies owned or developed by third parties if those parties are unwilling to subject themselves to regulatory review or do not meet regulatory requirements. Some gaming authorities require gaming manufacturers to obtain approval before engaging in certain transactions, such as acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations, financings, stock offerings and share repurchases. Obtaining such

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approvals can be costly and time consuming, and we cannot assure that such approvals will be granted or that the approval process will not result in delays or disruptions to our strategic objectives.

We rely on information technology and other systems, and any failures in our systems or errors, defects or disruptions in our products and services could diminish our brand and reputation, subject us to liability and have disrupted and could disrupt our business and adversely impact our results.

We rely on information technology systems that are important to the operation of our business, some of which are managed by third parties. These third parties are typically under no obligation to renew agreements and there is no guarantee that we will be able to renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. These systems are used to process, transmit and store electronic information, to manage and support our business operations and to maintain internal control over our financial reporting. In addition, we collect and store certain data, including proprietary business information, and may have access to confidential or personal information in certain of our businesses that is subject to privacy and security laws, regulations and customer-imposed controls. We could encounter difficulties in developing new systems, maintaining and upgrading current systems and preventing security breaches. Among other things, our systems are susceptible to damage, outages, disruptions or shutdowns due to fire, floods, power loss, break‑ins, cyber‑attacks, network penetration, denial of service attacks and similar events. While we have and will continue to implement network security measures and data protection safeguards, our servers and other computer systems are vulnerable to any number of threats, including viruses, malicious software, hacking, break‑ins or theft, data privacy or security breaches, third‑party security breaches, employee error or malfeasance and similar events. Failures in our systems or services or unauthorized access to or tampering with our systems and databases could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Any failures in our computer systems or telecommunications services could affect our ability to operate our linked games or otherwise conduct business.

A meaningful portion of our SciPlay and Digital gaming traffic is hosted by third-party data centers, such as Amazon Web Services, or AWS, Continent 8 and Claranet. Such third parties provide us with computing and storage capacity, and AWS is under no obligation to renew the agreements related to these services with us on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we are unable to renew these agreements on commercially reasonable terms, or if one of our data center operators is acquired, we may be required to transfer our servers and other infrastructure to new data center facilities and we may incur significant costs and possible lengthy service interruptions in connection with doing so, potentially causing harm to our reputation. If a game is unavailable or operates more slowly than anticipated when a player attempts to access it, that player may stop playing the game and be less likely to return to the game.

Portions of our information technology infrastructure, including those operated by third parties, have and may again experience interruptions, delays or cessations of service or produce errors in connection with systems integration or migration work that takes place from time to time. We may not be successful in implementing new systems and transitioning data, which could cause business disruptions and be more expensive, time consuming, disruptive and resource-intensive. We have no control over third parties that provide services to us and those parties could suffer problems or make decisions adverse to our business. We have contingency plans in place to prevent or mitigate the impact of these events. However, such disruptions could materially and adversely impact our ability to deliver products or services to customers and interrupt other processes. For example, in 2019, Flash was removed from the Google Chrome browser, resulting in player friction and disruptions in delivering our SciPlay and Digital services to our customers. If our information systems do not allow us to transmit accurate information, even for a short period of time, to key decision makers, the ability to manage our business could be disrupted and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. Failure to properly or adequately address these issues could impact our ability to perform necessary business operations, which could materially and adversely affect our reputation, competitive position, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Several of our products and services rely on data transferred over the internet. Access to the internet in a timely fashion is necessary to provide a satisfactory user experience to the consumers of our products. Third parties, such as telecommunications companies, could prevent access to the internet or limit the speed of our data transmissions, with or without reason, causing an adverse impact on our user experience that may materially and adversely affect our reputation, competitive position, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. In addition, telecommunications companies may implement certain measures, such as increased cost or restrictions based on the type or amount of data transmitted, that would impact consumers’ ability to access our products, which could materially and adversely affect our reputation, competitive position, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Furthermore, internet penetration may be adversely affected by difficult global economic conditions or the cancellation of government programs to expand broadband access.

If we or a company we acquire sustains cyber-attacks or other privacy or data security incidents that result in security breaches, we could suffer a loss of sales and increased costs, exposure to significant liability, reputational harm, regulatory fines or punishment and other negative consequences.

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Our information technology systems and infrastructure are subject to cyber-attacks, viruses, malicious software, break-ins, theft, computer hacking, employee error or malfeasance or other security breaches. Hackers and data thieves are increasingly sophisticated and operate large-scale and complex automated attacks. Threats to our information technology systems and infrastructure include:

•experienced computer programmers and hackers who are able to penetrate our security controls and misappropriate or compromise sensitive personal, proprietary or confidential information, create system disruptions or cause shutdowns or who are able to develop and deploy malicious software programs that attack our systems or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities;

•security incidents, acts of vandalism or theft, coordinated attacks by activist entities, misplaced or lost data, human errors or other similar events that could negatively affect our systems and the data stored on those systems, and the data of our business partners;

•third parties, such as hosted solution providers, that provide services to us, are also a source of security risk in the event of a failure of their own security systems and infrastructure.

The costs to eliminate or address the foregoing security threats and vulnerabilities before or after a cyber incident could be significant. Our remediation efforts may not be successful and could result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service, and loss of existing or potential suppliers or customers. In addition, breaches of our security measures and the unauthorized dissemination of sensitive personal, proprietary or confidential information about us, our business partners or other third parties could expose us to significant potential liability and reputational harm. As threats related to cyber-attacks develop and grow, we may also find it necessary to make further investments to protect our data and infrastructure, which may impact our results of operations. Although we have insurance coverage for protecting against damages resulting from cyber-attacks, it may not be sufficient to cover all possible claims, and we may suffer losses that could have a material adverse effect on our business. Our insurance coverage for protecting against damages resulting from cyber-attacks does not cover incidents which occur at companies we acquire after such cyber-attack. As a global enterprise, we could also be negatively impacted by existing and proposed U.S. and non U.S. laws and regulations, and government policies and practices related to cybersecurity, data privacy, data localization and data protection. In addition, our customers may encourage, or require, compliance with certain security standards, such as the voluntary cybersecurity framework released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which consists of controls designed to identify and manage cyber-security risks, and we could be negatively impacted to the extent we are unable to comply with such standards.

The intellectual property rights of others may prevent us from developing new products and services, entering new markets or may expose us to liability or costly litigation.

Our success depends in part on our ability to continually adapt our products and systems to incorporate new technologies and to expand into markets that may be created by new technologies. If technologies are protected by the intellectual property rights of others, including our competitors, we may be prevented from introducing products based on these technologies or expanding into markets created by these technologies. If the intellectual property rights of others prevent us from taking advantage of innovative technologies, our prospects, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We cannot assure that our business activities, games, products, services and systems will not infringe upon the proprietary rights of others, or that other parties will not assert infringement claims against us. In addition to infringement claims, third parties may allege claims of invalidity or unenforceability against us or against our licensees or manufacturers in connection with their use of our technology. A successful challenge to, or invalidation of, one of our intellectual property interests, a successful claim of infringement by a third party against us, our products or services, or one of our licensees in connection with the use of our technologies, or an unsuccessful claim of infringement made by us against a third party or its products or services could adversely affect our business or cause us financial harm. Any such claim and any resulting litigation, should it occur, could:

•be expensive and time consuming to defend or require us to pay significant amounts in damages;

•invalidate our proprietary rights;

•cause us to cease making, licensing or using products or services that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;

•require us to redesign, reengineer or rebrand our products or services or limit our ability to bring new products and services to the market in the future;

•require us to enter into costly or burdensome royalty, licensing or settlement agreements in order to obtain the right to use a product, process or component;

•impact the commercial viability of the products and services that are the subject of the claim during the pendency of such claim; and/or

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•require us by way of injunction to remove products or services on lease or stop selling or leasing new products or services.

Failure of our technological blocking systems could result in violations of laws or regulations and have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and prospects.

There is no guarantee that the technical blocks we implement and which our customers implement will be effective. These systems and controls are intended to ensure that our customers do not accept bets from end-users located in those jurisdictions where we have made a decision not to offer all or certain of our products and services. Any failure of such systems and controls may result in violations of applicable laws or regulations. Any claims in respect of any such violations could have cost, resource, and, in particular if successful, reputational implications, and implications on our ability to retain, renew or expand our portfolio of licenses, and so have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and prospects.

Moreover, there is an additional, ongoing risk that the current list of jurisdictions from which our customers and the Company must block access is enlarged, as there is a possibility that regulators who grant licenses to customers and/or the Company will require the blocking of specific additional jurisdictions. Similarly, jurisdictions may update their laws or regulations in such a way as to render the supply of gaming or sports wagering services into that jurisdiction legally or commercially unsustainable. In all such circumstances, additional blocking activity may have a detrimental effect on our financial position.

If we are unable to successfully implement our global enterprise resource planning system, it could disrupt our business or have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We are engaged in a multi-year implementation of a new global ERP system. The ERP system is designed to accurately maintain our books and records and provide information on our operations to management. Our ERP system implementation will continue to require significant investment of human and financial resources. There are inherent risks associated with upgrading or changing systems, including inaccurate data or reporting. The process of upgrading and standardizing our ERP system is complex, time‑consuming and expensive. Although we believe we are taking appropriate action to mitigate these risks through, among other things, testing, training and staging implementations, we cannot assure that we will not experience data loss, disruptions, delays or negative business impacts from the upgrades. Any operational disruptions during the course of this process and any delays or deficiencies in the design and implementation of the new ERP system or in the performance of our legacy systems could materially and adversely affect our ability to operate our businesses. Additionally, while we have spent considerable efforts to plan and budget for the implementation of the new ERP system, changes in scope, timeline or cost could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Risks Relating to Legal, Political or Other Regulatory Risks

We and our industries are subject to strict government regulations that may limit our existing operations, have an adverse impact on our ability to grow and affect our license eligibility or expose us to fines or other penalties.

In the U.S. and many other countries, the provision of Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital products and services is subject to extensive and evolving regulation. These regulatory requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Therefore, we are subject to a wide range of complex laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we are licensed or operate. Most jurisdictions require that we be licensed, that our key personnel and certain of our security holders be found suitable or be licensed, and that our products be reviewed and approved before placement. Licenses, approvals or findings of suitability may be revoked, suspended or conditioned. If a license, approval or finding of suitability is required by a regulatory authority and we fail to seek or do not receive the necessary approval, license or finding of suitability, or if it is granted and subsequently revoked, then we may be prohibited from providing our products or services for use in the particular jurisdiction. In addition, the loss of a license in one jurisdiction could trigger the loss of a license, or affect our eligibility for a license, in other jurisdictions. We may also become subject to regulation in any new jurisdictions in which we decide to operate in the future, including due to expansion of a customer’s operations. Gaming authorities have levied and may levy fines against us or seize certain of our assets if we violate gaming regulations. We cannot assure that we will be able to obtain or maintain the necessary licenses or approvals or that the licensing process will not result in delays or adversely affect our operations. The failure to obtain or retain a required license or approval in any jurisdiction would decrease the geographic areas where we are permitted to operate and generate revenue, may limit our ability to obtain a license in other jurisdictions and may put us at a disadvantage relative to our competitors.

We cannot assure that authorities will not seek to restrict our business in their jurisdictions or institute enforcement proceedings against us. We cannot assure that any instituted enforcement proceedings will be favorably resolved, or that such proceedings will not have a material adverse impact on our ability to retain and renew existing licenses or to obtain new

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licenses in other jurisdictions. Our reputation may also be damaged by any legal or regulatory investigation, regardless of whether or not we are ultimately accused of, or found to have committed, any violation.

Often, our games, Gaming product hardware and software and our Digital RMG and sports wagering offerings and services must be approved in the jurisdictions in which they are operated, and we cannot assure you that such products or services will be approved in any jurisdiction. Our networked gaming technology requires regulatory approval in gaming jurisdictions prior to the shipment or implementation of any gaming machines, products or services and, although we have received approvals from the jurisdictions in which we currently operate this technology, we cannot assure you that we will receive the approvals necessary to offer it in additional gaming jurisdictions. Many of our customers are required to be licensed, and delays in approvals of our customers’ operations or expansions may adversely affect our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. In addition, current regulations in a number of jurisdictions where our customers operate, such as Macau SAR and Singapore, limit the amount of space allocated to our products or limit the amount of new product available to operators to an amount that has been pre-approved by regulators. Substantial changes in any such regulations could adversely affect demand for our products.

A substantial portion of our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit revenue is concentrated with Ladbrokes Coral Group (which was acquired by Entain (formerly GVC Holdings PLC) in March 2018), which operates LBOs in the U.K. Effective as of April 1, 2019, fixed-odds betting terminals maximum stakes limit was required to be reduced from £100 to £2. As a result of this change, a number of LBO operators commenced a rationalization of their retail operations, which among other measures has included closure of certain LBO shops. The rationalization is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Effective as of April 14, 2020, the U.K. Gambling Commission banned gambling businesses from allowing consumers in Great Britain to use credit cards to gamble in all online and offline gambling products, with the exception of non-remote lotteries. The U.K. Gambling Commission announced changes to license conditions, effective as of March 31, 2020, which required all online gambling operators to participate in a multi-operator self-exclusion scheme, GAMSTOP, which allowed consumers to self-exclude from online operators with one request. We will continue to monitor the impact of the ban and the changes to license conditions on our Digital and Gaming business segments and overall business, but believe the impact will continue to be immaterial. The U.K. government’s pending review of the U.K.’s Gambling Act 2005 and anticipated increased regulatory scrutiny in 2021 as a result could negatively affect our ability to operate in the U.K..

We and certain of our affiliates, major stockholders (generally persons and entities beneficially owning a specified percentage (typically 5% or more) of our equity securities), directors, officers and key employees are subject to extensive background investigations and suitability standards in our businesses. For additional details regarding the background investigations, the risk of failure of any such individuals or entities to submit to such background investigations, the significant approval and licensing discretion of regulatory authorities, and the authority granted to these regulatory authorities, see “Government Regulation” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and Exhibit 99.4 “Gaming Regulations.” Our failure, or the failure of any of our major stockholders, directors, officers, key employees, products or technology, to obtain or retain a required license or approval in one jurisdiction could negatively impact our ability (or the ability of any of our major stockholders, directors, officers, key employees, products or technology) to obtain or retain required licenses and approvals in other jurisdictions.

In light of these regulations and the potential impact on our business, our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws allow for the restriction of stock ownership by persons or entities who fail to comply with informational or other regulatory requirements under applicable gaming laws, who are found unsuitable to hold our stock by gaming authorities, whose stock ownership adversely affects our ability to obtain, maintain, renew or qualify for a license, contract, franchise or other regulatory approval from a gaming authority or a purported transferee of a stockholder who acquires shares made invalid pursuant to our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws. The licensing procedures and background investigations of the authorities that regulate our businesses and the restriction in our amended and restated articles of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may inhibit potential investors from becoming significant stockholders or inhibit existing stockholders from retaining or increasing their ownership.

There are instances where a state in which a Native American tribe conducts Class III gaming activities disagrees with such tribe regarding the regulation of gaming, including the regulation of gaming suppliers. In those instances, we make every effort to comply with both state and tribal regulation and fulfill our contractual obligations. However, there may be and have been situations where any such disagreement impedes or creates uncertainty with respect to our ability to supply gaming products and services to such tribal customer or otherwise negatively impacts our relationship with such customer or gaming regulators. There are additional complexities that may impact disputes or other interactions with Native American tribe customers. For example, Native American tribes generally enjoy sovereign immunity from lawsuits, similar to the sovereign immunity enjoyed by the individual states and the U.S. In addition, certain commercial agreements with Native American tribes are subject to review by regulatory authorities such as the National Indian Gaming Commission, and, among other things, any

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such review could require substantial modifications to any such agreement we enter into with a Native American tribe customer.

Our customers are required to comply with all applicable laws. In addition, we maintain and update a list of jurisdictions where we believe there is legal or regulatory risk associated with remote gaming and require that our customers contractually agree not to offer our games or accept wagers from end users in such jurisdictions. Despite our efforts, we cannot assure you that our customers will remain in compliance with laws or with the terms of their contracts with us or that a breach of any of the foregoing will be identified or cured in a timely manner.

We have developed and implemented an internal compliance program in an effort to ensure that we comply with legal requirements imposed in connection with our Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital activities and legal requirements generally applicable to all publicly traded companies. Refer to “Government Regulation- General” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, for additional details about the compliance program. We cannot assure that such steps will prevent the violation of one or more laws or regulations, or that a violation by us or an employee will not result in the imposition of a monetary fine, suspension or revocation of one or more of our licenses or other penalties.

     Laws and regulations relating to our SciPlay and Digital businesses (including sports wagering) are evolving. For additional discussion regarding risks associated with the evolving regulatory landscape for interactive gaming and sports wagering, see the risk factors captioned “We may not be able to capitalize on the expansion of internet or other forms of interactive gaming or other trends and changes in the gaming, lottery, social, and digital gaming industries, including due to laws and regulations governing these industries”; “Legislative interpretation and enforcement of certain gaming or sports wagering activities could adversely affect financial performance and reputation”; “Regulators and investors may perceive gaming or sports wagering suppliers and operators similarly, and consider their respective regulatory risk to be similar”; “Failure of our technological blocking systems could result in violations of laws or regulations and have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and prospects”; “Expectations of a shift to regulated online gaming or sports wagering may not come to fruition”; “We may incur additional impairment charges”; and “We rely on the ability to use the intellectual property rights of third parties”; and “Government Regulation” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

See Exhibit 99.4 “Gaming Regulations” for additional information regarding certain of the regulations that govern our Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital businesses.

Legislative interpretation and enforcement of certain gaming or sports wagering activities could adversely affect financial performance and reputation.

Some jurisdictions are seeking to regulate gaming or sports wagering; others are seeking to prohibit it. We generate a portion of our operating results through licensing our proprietary software technology and games to enable gaming or sports wagering operators to provide gaming or sports wagering services to customers where such services are dependent on that software and the functionality it provides. Laws and regulations relating to the supply of such services are complex, inconsistent and evolving, and we may be subject to such laws either directly through explicit service provision or indirectly insofar as we have assisted the supply to customers who are themselves subject to such laws. For example, where supply by the Company to the customer is critical to the gaming or sports wagering transaction, there is a risk that a regulator could take direct enforcement action against us.

Many jurisdictions have not updated their laws to address the supply of remote gaming or sports wagering, which by its nature is a multi-jurisdictional activity. Moreover, the legality of such activities and related services is subject to uncertainties arising from differing approaches by legislatures, regulators and enforcement agents including in relation to determining in which jurisdiction the gaming takes place and therefore which law applies and in relation to regulations being interpreted in unfavorable or unanticipated ways.

We monitor legal and regulatory developments in all of our material gaming or sports wagering markets and generally seek to keep abreast of legal and regulatory developments affecting our industries. However, we do not necessarily monitor, on a continuous basis, the laws and regulations in every jurisdiction where we or our customers do business and, therefore, we or our customers may operate in jurisdictions where we may be unaware of the full extent of the legal or regulatory risk.

Sometimes we are able to take the additional precautionary step of blocking wagers from jurisdictions where we are aware of material legal or regulatory risk associated with remote gaming or sports wagering. In addition, the Company protects itself through contractual mechanisms with our customers explicitly allowing us to suspend or terminate services if such customers offer our games or accept wagers from end users in certain jurisdictions.

Despite the monitoring we have undertaken and the other precautions we take, it is possible that, due to the above factors, such measures are not sufficient and that criminal or regulatory actions could be brought against us or our employees or

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directors, any or all of which could have a detrimental effect on the our financial performance and reputation. Furthermore, actions brought against our customers could also have a detrimental effect on our financial performance or reputation, including if such actions prevent or delay the receipt of revenue from such customers.

We may not be able to capitalize on the expansion of internet or other forms of interactive gaming or other trends and changes in the gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries, including due to laws and regulations governing these industries.

We participate in the new and evolving digital gaming and interactive lottery industries through our SciPlay, RMG and other interactive gaming and lottery offerings. Part of our strategy is to take advantage of the liberalization of interactive gaming, both within the U.S. and internationally. These industries involve significant risks and uncertainties, including legal, business and financial risks. The success of these industries and of our interactive gaming and lottery products and services may be affected by future developments in social networks, including Facebook, mobile platforms, regulatory developments, data privacy laws and other factors that we are unable to predict and are beyond our control. This fast‑changing environment can make it difficult to plan strategically and can provide opportunities for competitors to grow their businesses at our expense. Consequently, our future results of operations, cash flows and financial condition relating to our Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital products and services are difficult to predict and may not grow at the rates we expect, and we cannot assure that these products and services will be successful in the long term.

In general, our ability to successfully pursue our digital, gaming and lottery strategy depends in part on the laws and regulations relating to wagering through interactive channels. Until 2011, there was uncertainty as to whether the Wire Act prohibited states from conducting intrastate lottery transactions via the internet if such transactions crossed state lines. In late 2011, the OLC issued an opinion which concluded that the prohibitions of the Wire Act were limited to sports gambling and thus did not apply to state lotteries at all. In 2018, at the request of the Criminal Division, the OLC reconsidered the 2011 DOJ opinion’s conclusion that the Wire Act was limited to sports gambling. On January 14, 2019, the OLC published a legal opinion dated November 2, 2018, which concluded that the 2011 DOJ opinion had incorrectly interpreted the Wire Act. In the 2018 DOJ opinion, the OLC concluded that the restrictions on the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets and wagers in the Wire Act were not limited to sports gambling but instead applied to all bets and wagers. These restrictions would therefore apply equally to our iGaming, iLottery and sports betting solutions and services. The OLC also found that the enactment of the UIGEA described above did not modify the scope of the Wire Act. The DOJ later issued memoranda directing federal law enforcement agencies to refrain from enforcing the conclusions of the 2018 DOJ opinion for activities other than sports betting until June 30, 2020. No official extension of the forbearance period has been announced. On January 20, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an opinion that the Wire Act applies only to the interstate transmission of wire communications related to sports gambling and not to all bets and wagers. At this time, we are unable to determine whether the 2018 DOJ opinion will be upheld by other courts or what impact the 2018 DOJ opinion or the impact of any other challenge to the 2018 DOJ opinion will have on us or our customers.

Despite the Supreme Court decision overturning the PASPA, as evidenced by the 2018 DOJ opinion, there are still significant forces working to limit or prohibit interactive gaming and lottery in the U.S. For additional information regarding proposed laws at the federal or state level, see “Government Regulation - Digital” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The enactment of internet gaming legislation that federalizes significant aspects of the regulation of internet gaming and/or limits the forms of internet wagering that are permissible at the state or federal level could have an adverse impact on our ability to pursue our interactive gaming and lottery strategy in the U.S.

Internationally, laws relating to internet gaming are evolving, particularly in Europe. For additional information, including steps taken by European governments, the European Commission dropping enforcement actions, and regulatory developments in countries outside Europe and the U.S., regarding how laws relating to internet gaming are evolving internationally, see “Government Regulation - Digital” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We cannot predict the timing, scope or terms of any such state, federal or foreign laws and regulations, or the extent to which any such laws and regulations will facilitate or hinder our interactive strategy.

Our business is subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the internet, and laws and regulations governing data privacy and security, including with respect to the collection, storage, use, transmission and protection of personal information and other consumer data. The scope of data privacy and security regulations continues to evolve, and we believe that the adoption of increasingly restrictive regulations in this area is likely within the U.S. and other jurisdictions. Our SciPlay and Digital businesses are subject to evolving regulations, and the status of any particular jurisdiction may change at any time. The regulatory structure surrounding certain aspects of these businesses is currently in flux in some jurisdictions. See the risk factor captioned “Gaming opponents persist in their efforts to curtail the expansion of legalized gaming, which, if successful, could limit the growth of our operations” and “Government Regulation - SciPlay” and “Government Regulation - Digital” in Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information on evolving regulations applicable to our SciPlay and Digital businesses.

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Know-your-customer and geo-location programs and technologies supplied by third parties are an important aspect of certain internet and mobile gaming products and services because they confirm certain information with respect to players and prospective players, such as age, identity and location. Payment processing programs and technologies, typically provided by third parties, are also a necessary feature of interactive wagering products and services. These programs and technologies are costly and may have an adverse impact on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Additionally, we cannot assure that products containing these programs and technologies will be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all, or that they will perform accurately or otherwise in accordance with our required specifications. See the SciPlay and Digital sections in the risk factor captioned “We operate in highly competitive industries, and our success depends on our ability to effectively compete with numerous domestic and foreign businesses” for additional information on risks regarding internet and mobile gaming products and services.

The continuing uncertainty following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU may adversely affect our business.

On June 23, 2016, the U.K. held a referendum in which voters approved an exit from the EU, commonly referred to as “Brexit.” As a result of the referendum, the British government began negotiations with the EU regarding the U.K.’s relationship with the EU following its exit from the EU. After years of negotiations to establish the framework for the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU, the U.K. formally left the EU on January 31, 2020. A transition period began on February 1, 2020, which lasted until December 31, 2020. On January 1, 2021, the U.K. left the European Union Single Market and Customs Union, as well as all EU policies and international agreements. As a result, the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital between the U.K. and the EU ended, and the U.K. and the EU formed two separate markets and two distinct regulatory and legal spaces. Prior to the U.K.’s departure, a trade and cooperation agreement (the “Trade Agreement”) was reached between the U.K. and the EU on December 24, 2020, avoiding a no-deal Brexit. The Trade Agreement was approved by the EU’s member states and the U.K. Parliament, and is expected to be formally ratified by the European Parliament. The Trade Agreement offers U.K. and EU companies preferential access to each other’s markets, ensuring imported goods will be free of tariffs and quotas; however, economic relations between the U.K. and the EU will now be on more restricted terms than existed previously. While the Trade Agreement provides clarity for the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU, uncertainties remain and further negotiations are expected.

The continuing uncertainty following the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU have resulted in political, legislative and regulatory uncertainty throughout the region and could adversely affect business activity, restrict the movement of capital and the mobility of personnel and otherwise impair political stability and economic conditions in the U.K., the EU and elsewhere. Any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on business activity, especially in the U.K. or the EU. Given that we conduct a substantial portion of our business in continental Europe and the U.K., any of these developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

The continuing uncertainty concerning the terms of Brexit could have a negative impact on the growth of the U.K. and EU economies, and potentially elsewhere, and has caused greater volatility in the British Pound Sterling, the Euro and other currencies. Changes in currency exchange rates may reduce the reported value of our revenues outside the U.S. The uncertainty around the withdrawal of the U.K. from the EU has caused volatility in global stock markets and currency exchange rate fluctuations, including the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies, and we expect such volatility to continue as further negotiations proceed.

Brexit could lead to legal uncertainty and potentially divergent national laws and regulations as the U.K. continues to determine which EU laws to replace or replicate. Additionally, Brexit may alter U.K. regulations affecting our industry, which may result in significant costs and potentially lost opportunities for us. It may also be time-consuming and expensive for us to alter our internal operations in order to comply with new regulations. The changes to U.K. border and immigration policy could likewise occur as a result of Brexit and could affect our ability to recruit and retain employees from outside the U.K.

Changes in tax laws or tax rulings, or the examination of our tax positions, including in light of recent stockholder transactions, could materially affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Tax laws are dynamic and subject to change as new laws are passed and new interpretations of the law are issued or applied. Our existing corporate structure and intercompany arrangements have been implemented in a manner that we believe is in compliance with current prevailing tax laws. However, the tax benefits that we intend to eventually derive could be undermined due to changing tax laws. In addition, the taxing authorities in the U.S. and other jurisdictions where we do business regularly examine our income and other tax returns and we expect that they may examine our income and other tax returns. The ultimate outcome of these examinations cannot be predicted with certainty.

Certain of our U.S. federal, state, and foreign tax attributes may be subject to annual limitations under Internal Revenue Code Section 382 (“Section 382”) (or comparable provisions of state or foreign law) in the event that certain changes in ownership were to occur. Tax attributes that exceed the Section 382 limitation in any year continue to be allowed as carry

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forwards until they expire and can be used to offset taxable income for years within the carryover period subject to the limitation in each year. Given the Company’s significant U.S. tax attributes, we continuously monitor potential ownership changes under Section 382. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we experienced an ownership change, triggering the application of Section 382. We do not expect any resulting Section 382 limitations to have a significant impact on the use of our tax attributes.

Gaming opponents persist in their efforts to curtail the expansion of legalized gaming, which, if successful, could limit the growth of our operations.

There is significant debate over, and opposition to, land‑based and interactive RMG. We cannot assure that this opposition will not succeed in preventing the legalization of gaming in jurisdictions where it is presently prohibited, prohibiting or limiting the expansion of gaming where it is currently permitted or causing the repeal of legalized gaming in any jurisdiction. Any successful effort to curtail the expansion of, or limit or prohibit, legalized gaming could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

In addition, there is significant opposition in some jurisdictions to interactive social and digital gaming, including social casino gaming and sports wagering. Some states or countries have anti-gaming groups that specifically target social casino games and sports wagering. Such opposition could lead these jurisdictions to adopt legislation or impose a regulatory framework to govern interactive social gaming, social casino games or sports wagering specifically. These could result in a prohibition on interactive social gaming, social casino gaming or sports wagering altogether, restrict our ability to advertise our games, or substantially increase our costs to comply with these regulations, all of which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. We continue to devote significant attention to monitoring these developments. However, we cannot predict the likelihood, timing, scope or terms of any state, federal or foreign legislation or regulations relating to our SciPlay and Digital businesses or the extent to which they may affect our SciPlay and Digital businesses.

Regulators and investors may perceive gaming or sports wagering suppliers and operators similarly, and consider their respective regulatory risk to be similar.

While operators that directly provide sports wagering services to their customers are generally perceived to be exposed to a greater degree of enforcement risk than their suppliers, in some jurisdictions laws extend to directly impact such suppliers. Furthermore, a supplier’s nexus with a particular jurisdiction may expose it to specific enforcement risks, irrespective of whether there has been an attempt to bring proceedings against any supported operator. In some circumstances, enforcement proceedings brought against an operator may result in action being taken against a supplier (and even brought in the absence of the former).

Ultimately, the market may view, or in the future may view, the regulatory risk associated with the business of supplying software and services to sports wagering operators as being comparable with the regulatory risk attaching to operators themselves. In such circumstances, there is an associated risk that investors may apply valuation methods to any such supplier that are the same as the valuation methods used to value operators, and which build in the same regulatory risk even though, in many territories, such suppliers would be considered sufficiently removed from the transactional activity to warrant the application of a discrete risk analysis.

Expectations of a shift to regulated online gaming or sports wagering may not come to fruition.

Our business strategy includes a gradual shift into new, regulated online gaming and sports wagering markets. We expect there to be an opportunity to grow revenue by being among the first systems providers to obtain a license to operate online gaming systems in markets where end-users historically have been reliant on unregulated online gaming. However, there is no guarantee that end users who are currently engaging in unregulated online gaming (in the U.S. or elsewhere) will transition away from unregulated gaming to regulated gaming in the wake of regulation, which is itself uncertain as to timing and scope and varies on a jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis. Our ability to influence end-user tastes and habits is limited, and if the introduction of regulation fails to result in a migration of end-users from unregulated gaming to regulated gaming (from which we currently derive and are expected to derive revenue through revenue sharing and fixed fees arrangements with our sports wagering customers), this may have an adverse impact on our operations, financial performance and prospects.

On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court of the U.S. overturned the PASPA, a decision that opened up a path to legalization of sports wagering across the country. Following this ruling, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports wagering with some of those states permitting online sports wagering. Other states are considering legislation that would permit legal sports wagering, both land based and online. As a result of the change in regulations, we expanded, and expect to further expand, our sports wagering business. Our ability to expand our online gaming and sports wagering operations depends on adoption of regulations permitting sports wagering in the U.S. We cannot assure when, or if, such regulations will be adopted, or the terms of such regulations, in certain of the jurisdictions in which we operate.

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Data privacy and security laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we do business could increase the cost of our operations and subject us to possible sanctions and other penalties

We collect, process, store, use and share data, some of which contains personal information. Our businesses are therefore subject to a number of federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations governing data privacy and security, including with respect to the collection, storage, use, transmission, sharing and protection of personal information and other consumer and employee data. Such laws and regulations may be inconsistent among countries or conflict with other rules. In particular, the EU has adopted strict data privacy and security regulations. Following certain developments in the EU, including the EU’s GDPR and proposed Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (the “ePrivacy Regulation”), data privacy and security compliance in the EU are increasingly complex and challenging. The GDPR created new compliance obligations applicable to our business and some of our players and it also imposes increased financial penalties for noncompliance (including possible fines of up to four percent of global annual revenue for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher) for the most serious violations). Compliance with the GDPR and similar regulations increases our operational costs and can impact operational efficiencies.

The scope of data privacy and security regulations worldwide continues to evolve, and we believe that the adoption of increasingly restrictive regulations in this area is likely within the U.S. and other jurisdictions. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, went into effect on January 1, 2020. This law, among other things, requires new disclosures to California consumers, imposes new rules for collecting or using information about minors, and affords consumers new abilities to opt out of certain disclosures of personal information. It is unclear how courts will interpret the CCPA. The U.S. Congress may also pass a law to preempt all or part of the CCPA. Further, California recently passed the California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, which amends the CCPA to provide more comprehensive privacy protections to consumers once it becomes effective in January 2023. The effects of the CCPA and CPRA may be significant, and the CCPA required us to update our policies to include CCPA-specific clauses and procedures. A number of other proposals related to data privacy or security are pending before federal, state, and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies. For example, the European Union is contemplating the adoption of the ePrivacy Regulation, expected in 2021, that would govern data privacy and the protection of personal data in electronic communications, in particular for direct marketing purposes. Efforts to comply with these and other data privacy and security restrictions that may be enacted could require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and increase the cost of our operations. Failure to comply with such restrictions could subject us to criminal and civil sanctions and other penalties. In part due to the uncertainty of the legal climate, complying with regulations, and any applicable rules or guidance from self-regulatory organizations relating to privacy, data protection, information security and consumer protection, may result in substantial costs and may necessitate changes to our businesses practices, which may compromise our growth strategy, adversely affect our ability to attract or retain players, and otherwise adversely affect our businesses, financial condition and operating results.

Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our posted privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to players or other third parties, or any other legal obligations or regulatory requirements relating to privacy, data protection, or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our players to lose trust in us, and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and businesses. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, and policies that are applicable to us may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our games. Additionally, if third parties we work with violate applicable laws, regulations, or agreements, such violations may put our players’ data at risk, could result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, fines, litigation, claims or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our players to lose trust in us and otherwise materially and adversely affect our reputation and businesses. Further, public scrutiny of, or complaints about, technology companies or their data handling or data protection practices, even if unrelated to our businesses, industry or operations, may lead to increased scrutiny of technology companies, including us, and may cause government agencies to enact additional regulatory requirements, or to modify their enforcement or investigation activities, which may increase our costs and risks.

General Risk Factors

We have incurred, and may continue to incur, restructuring costs, the benefits of which are unpredictable and may not be achieved.

In the past, we have implemented various business improvement, optimization and restructuring initiatives in an effort to streamline our organization, leverage our resources more efficiently, and reduce our operating costs. These initiatives encompassed a combination of headcount reductions, facilities streamlining, and reductions in other operating costs. We have engaged, and may continue to engage, in similar or additional restructuring initiatives, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the future. Because we are not able to predict with certainty when we will reorganize portions of our business, we cannot predict the extent, timing and magnitude of additional restructuring charges. We may also not realize the anticipated reduction in operating costs.

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We may incur additional impairment charges.

We review our amortizable intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable. We test goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment at least annually. Factors that may indicate a change in circumstances, such that the carrying value of our goodwill, amortizable intangible assets or other non-amortizing assets may not be recoverable, include a decline in our stock price and market capitalization, reduced future cash flow estimates, and slower growth rates in industry segments in which we participate. We may be required to record a significant charge in our consolidated financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, which would negatively affect our results of operations. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting unfavorable social, political, economic and financial conditions, during the first quarter of 2020 we performed an interim goodwill impairment assessment, which resulted in a $54 million goodwill impairment charge for our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit further discussed below. For all of our reporting units, we concluded that as of December 31, 2020 it was not more likely than not that the fair value of these reporting units is below their carrying values and that the COVID-19 disruptions do not trigger an impairment. However, this could change in the future depending on prevailing conditions that could result in additional impairment charges. For more information on the assessment and the goodwill impairment charge, see section captioned “Business Overview – Highlights, including recent developments – Impacts of COVID-19” in Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and Note 10.

As discussed above and further detailed in Note 10, the COVID-19 disruptions resulted in the widespread closures of LBO shops across the U.K., which, along with global economic uncertainty, contributed to further deterioration in business conditions from our 2019 annual goodwill test date, which resulted in a goodwill impairment charge of $54 million during the first quarter of 2020. Any future adverse changes to our projections, could negatively impact the recoverability of the remaining carrying value of our goodwill and other assets for our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit, which might result in additional material impairment charges.

We believe there to be an elevated risk of goodwill impairment for the unimpaired Gaming segment reporting units if the adverse impact of the COVID-19 disruptions or overall recovery of the casino industry globally sustains over an extended period of time. The remaining goodwill balance for our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit as of December 31, 2020 was $129 million. Any future adverse changes in projections for future operating results or other key assumptions, such as projected revenue, profit margin, capital expenditures or cash flows associated with investments included in our estimation of fair value for our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit could lead to additional future goodwill impairments, which could be material.

Moreover, application of the goodwill impairment test requires judgment, including the identification of reporting units, assignment of assets and liabilities to reporting units, assignment of goodwill to reporting units, and determination of the fair value of each reporting unit. We cannot predict the occurrence of impairments, and we cannot assure that we will not have to record additional impairment charges in the future.

We depend on our key employees and rely on skilled employees with creative and technical backgrounds.

We depend on the continued performance of our executive officers and key personnel, including Barry Cottle, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Our ability to retain certain key employees and skilled technical workers has been and may continue to be impaired due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If we lose the services of any of our executive officers or key personnel and cannot find suitable replacements for such persons in a timely manner, it could have an adverse impact on our business. Our ability to expand is dependent on our ability to recruit and retain talented employees in the U.S. and internationally who are capable of leading our employees to achieve our strategic objectives.

We also rely on our highly skilled, technically trained and creative employees to develop new technologies and create innovative products. Such employees, particularly game designers, engineers and project managers with desirable skill sets are in high demand, and we devote significant resources to identifying, hiring, training, successfully integrating and retaining these employees. A lack of skilled technical workers could delay or negatively impact our business plans, ability to compete, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

If we are not able to maintain adequate internal control over our financial reporting, it could adversely affect our reputation and business.

We are responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. If we cannot maintain and execute adequate internal control over financial reporting or when necessary implement new or improved controls that provide reasonable assurance of the reliability of the financial reporting and preparation of our financial statements for external use, we may suffer harm to our reputation, fail to meet our public reporting requirements on a timely basis or be unable to properly report on our business and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Additionally, the inherent limitations of internal controls over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all misstatements or fraud, regardless of the

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adequacy of those controls. We are currently undertaking an ERP system implementation in our largest business segment. In addition, the adoption of any new accounting standards may require us to add new or change existing internal controls, which may not be successful. Each of the preceding changes could materially impact our internal control over financial reporting. As of December 31, 2020, we have concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective based on criteria outlined in Part II, Item 9A “Controls and Procedures” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, however, we cannot assure that material weaknesses will not be identified in the future.

Our inability to complete acquisitions and integrate those businesses successfully could limit our growth or disrupt our plans and operations.

From time to time, we pursue strategic acquisitions. Our ability to succeed in implementing our acquisition strategy will depend to some degree upon our ability to identify and complete commercially viable acquisitions. We cannot assure that acquisition opportunities will be available on acceptable terms or at all, or that we will be able to obtain necessary financing or regulatory approvals to complete potential acquisitions.

We may not be able to successfully integrate any businesses that we acquire or do so within the intended timeframes. We could face significant challenges in managing and integrating our acquisitions and our combined operations, including acquired assets, operations and personnel. In addition, the expected cost synergies or any other anticipated benefits associated with such acquisitions may not be fully realized in the anticipated amounts or within the contemplated timeframes or cost expectations, which could result in increased costs and have an adverse effect on our prospects, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. We expect to incur incremental costs and capital expenditures related to our contemplated integration activities.

Acquisition transactions may disrupt our ongoing business. The integration of acquisitions will require significant time and focus from management and may divert attention from the day‑to‑day operations of the combined business or delay the achievement of our strategic objectives.

Our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition could be affected by severe weather and other geological events in the locations where we or our customers, suppliers or regulators operate.

We may be impacted by severe weather and other geological events, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods or tsunamis, that could disrupt our operations or the operations of our customers, suppliers, data service providers and regulators. Natural disasters or other disruptions at any of our facilities or our suppliers’ facilities, such as Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft may impair or delay the operation, development, provisions or delivery of our products and services. Additionally, disruptions experienced by our regulators due to natural disasters or otherwise could delay our introduction of new products or entry into new jurisdictions where regulatory approval is necessary. While we insure against certain business interruption risks, we cannot assure that such insurance will compensate us for any losses incurred as a result of natural or other disasters. Any serious disruption to our operations, or those of our customers, our suppliers, data service providers, or our regulators, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We are subject to risks related to corporate and social responsibility and reputation.

Many factors influence our reputation, including the perception held by our customers, business partners and other key stakeholders. Our business faces increasing scrutiny related to environmental, social and governance activities. We risk damage to our reputation if we fail to act responsibly in a number of areas, such as diversity and inclusion, sustainability and social responsibility. Any harm to our reputation could impact employee engagement and retention, our corporate culture and the willingness of customers and our partners to do business with us, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and cash flows.

We could incur costs in the event of violations of, or liabilities under, environmental laws, which may adversely affect our business and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

Our operations and real property are subject to U.S. and foreign environmental laws and regulations, including those relating to air emissions, the management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes and the cleanup of contaminated sites. We could incur costs, including cleanup costs, fines or penalties, and third‑party claims as a result of violations of, or liabilities under, environmental laws, which could negatively impact our business and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. Some of our operations require environmental permits and controls to prevent or reduce environmental pollution, and these permits are subject to review, renewal and modification by issuing authorities.

Litigation may adversely affect our business and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

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We are and may become subject to litigation claims in the operation of our business, including, but not limited to, with respect to employee matters, alleged product and system malfunctions, alleged intellectual property infringement and claims relating to our contracts, licenses and strategic investments. We have incurred and may incur significant expense defending or settling any such litigation. Additionally, adverse judgments that have been and may be decided against us resulted and could result in significant monetary damages or injunctive relief that could adversely affect our ability to conduct our business and our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition. For additional information regarding our litigation, see Note 21.

Failure to perform under our contracts may result in substantial monetary liquidated damages and contract termination.

Our contracts, including our Lottery contracts and our Gaming contracts relating to the provision of VLTs, typically permit a counterparty to terminate the contract at any time for a material failure to perform, other specified reasons and, in many cases, for no reason at all. Upon such a termination or failure to perform, we may be required to refund fees paid to us for services performed or allow our customers to return our products to us for a full refund. Lottery contracts to which we are a party also frequently contain exacting implementation schedules and performance requirements, and the failure to meet these schedules and requirements may result in substantial monetary liquidated damages, and possible contract termination. We are also required by certain of our Lottery customers to provide surety or performance bonds. In the past, we have paid or incurred liquidated damages and have been required to allow the return of VLTs for a full refund under our contracts, and material amounts of liquidated damages could be imposed on us in the future, which could, if imposed, have a material adverse effect on our business prospects, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition.

We may be liable for product defects or other claims relating to our products.

Our products could be defective, fail to perform as designed or otherwise cause harm to our customers, their equipment or their products. If any of our products are defective, we may be required to recall the products and/or repair or replace them, which could result in substantial expenses and affect our profitability. Any problem with the performance of our products, such as an instant lottery product misprint or false jackpot or other prize, could harm our reputation, which could result in a loss of sales to customers and/or potential customers. In addition, the occurrence of errors in, or fraudulent manipulation of, our products or software may give rise to claims by our customers or by our customers’ patrons, including claims by our customers for lost revenues and related litigation that could result in significant liability. Any claims brought against us by customers may result in diversion of management’s time and attention, expenditure of large amounts of cash on legal fees and payment of damages, lower demand for our products or services, or injury to our reputation. Our insurance may not sufficiently cover a judgment against us or a settlement payment and is subject to customary deductibles, limits and exclusions. In addition, a judgment against us or a settlement could make it difficult for us to obtain insurance in the coverage amounts necessary to adequately insure our businesses, or at all, and could materially increase our insurance premiums and deductibles. In addition, software bugs or malfunctions, errors in distribution or installation of our software, failure of our products to perform as approved by the appropriate regulatory bodies or other errors or malfunctions, may subject us to investigation or other action by gaming regulatory authorities, including fines.

Labor disputes and union organizing activities may have an adverse effect on our operations.

Certain of our employees are represented by unions or works councils, including employees in Europe, South America and Canada. In particular, the majority of our employees at our printing facilities in the U.K., Chile and Quebec, the majority of our employees in Austria and Germany, and a small number of employees in the U.S. are represented by unions or work councils. While we believe our relations with our employees are satisfactory, we cannot predict whether we will be successful in negotiating new collective bargaining agreements without any disruptions in our operations or higher labor costs.

We cannot assure that we will not encounter conflicts or strikes with any labor unions that represent our employees or union organizing activities at our non-unionized facilities. Any of the foregoing could adversely impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition or our customers’ operations, could cause us to lose customers, or could increase our labor costs.

ITEM 1B.    UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES

We occupy approximately 1,997,000 square feet of space in the U.S. Internationally, we occupy approximately 1,481,000 square feet of space. We believe that these facilities are adequate for our business as presently conducted. Set forth below is an overview of the principal owned and leased real estate properties that support our corporate headquarters and Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital segments.

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Location	Sq. Ft.	Supports	Tenancy
Las Vegas, Nevada	446,779	Corporate Headquarters, Gaming and Digital	Lease/Own(1)
Alpharetta, Georgia	387,000	Lottery	Lease/Own(2)
India (Bangalore, Chennai, Pune)	207,687	Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital	Lease
(1) Lease 294,779 sq. ft. and own 152,000 sq. ft.
(2) Lease 32,000 sq. ft. and own 355,000 sq. ft.

Our owned Alpharetta and Las Vegas facilities listed above are encumbered by mortgages securing indebtedness under our credit agreement and Secured Notes. In addition to those listed above, we own and lease a number of additional less significant properties in the U.S. and internationally that also support our operations.

ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

For discussion of our legal proceedings, see Note 21, which is incorporated by reference into this Item 3 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 4.    MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market for our Common Stock

Our outstanding common stock is listed for trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SGMS.”

On February 23, 2021, the closing sale price for our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market was $47.47 per share. There were 642 holders of record of our common stock as of February 23, 2021. This does not include the number of stockholders who hold shares of our common stock through banks, brokers or other financial institutions.

Dividend Policy

We have never paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not presently intend to pay cash dividends on common stock in the foreseeable future. Further, under the terms of certain of our debt agreements, we are limited in our ability to pay cash dividends or make certain other restricted payments (other than stock dividends) on our common stock.

Stockholder Return Performance Graph

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return over the five-year period ended December 31, 2020 of our then outstanding common stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and indices of our peer group companies that operate in industries or lines of business similar to ours.

Our peer group companies consist of Aristocrat (Australian Securities Exchange: ALL), IGT (New York Stock Exchange: IGT), Intralot, S.A. (Athens Stock Exchange: IRLTY), Pollard Banknote Limited (Toronto Stock Exchange: PBL.UN-TO) and Everi Holdings Inc. (New York Stock Exchange: EVRI).

The companies in our peer group have been weighted based on their relative market capitalization each year. The graph assumes that $100 was invested in our then outstanding common stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the peer group indices at the beginning of the five-year period and that all dividends were reinvested. The comparisons are not intended to be indicative of future performance of our common stock.

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	12/15		12/16		12/17		12/18		12/19		12/20
Scientific Games Corporation	$	100.00	$	156.08	$	571.91	$	199.33	$	298.55	$	462.54
NASDAQ Composite	$	100.00	$	108.87	$	141.13	$	137.12	$	187.44	$	271.64
Peer Group	$	100.00	$	151.68	$	220.91	$	167.80	$	246.16	$	259.35

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ITEM 6.    SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

We early adopted new amendment to Regulation S-K Item 301, which eliminates Selected Financial Data.

ITEM 7.    MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion is intended to enhance the reader’s understanding of our operations and current business environment and should be read in conjunction with the description of our business (see Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K) and our Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes (see Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K).

This “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” (“MD&A”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and should be read in conjunction with the disclosures and information contained and referenced under “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” at the beginning and in Part I, Item 1A, respectively, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. As used in this MD&A, the terms “we,” “us,” “our” and the “Company” mean SGC together with its consolidated subsidiaries.

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

We are a leading developer of technology‑based products and services and associated content for the worldwide gaming, lottery, social and digital gaming industries. Our portfolio of revenue-generating activities primarily includes supplying gaming machines and game content, CMSs and table game products and services to licensed gaming entities; providing instant and draw‑based lottery products, lottery systems and lottery content and services to lottery operators; providing social casino and other mobile games to retail customers; and providing a comprehensive suite of digital RMG and sports wagering solutions, distribution platforms, content, products and services to various gaming entities. We also gain access to technologies and pursue global expansion through strategic acquisitions and equity investments.

We are incorporated in Nevada. For more information on our corporate history, please see the General introduction to Part I, Item 1 “Business” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K above.

Highlights, including recent developments

Caledonia Transaction and Governance Enhancements

On September 14, 2020, the Company announced that a group of long-term institutional investors, including highly credentialed gaming industry investor Caledonia Investments, reached an agreement to acquire a 34.9% stake in SGC from MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated (“MacAndrews & Forbes”) at a price of $28.00 per share. This transaction was completed on October 27, 2020, with no investor owning more than 9.9% of the Company’s shares as a result.

In connection with the transaction, the Company implemented a series of governance changes and enhancements, including refreshment of our board of directors. The existing stockholders’ agreement with MacAndrews & Forbes was terminated in connection with the transaction and all rights held by MacAndrews & Forbes, other than registration rights, are no longer in effect. As a result, MacAndrews and Forbes no longer holds any rights to appoint directors to our board.

The reconstituted board now consists of all previously existing directors, other than the MacAndrews & Forbes representatives, as well as four new directors. Former Aristocrat Chief Executive Officer Jamie Odell, along with former Aristocrat Chief Financial Officer Toni Korsanos, were elected to the board as Executive Chair and Executive Vice Chair, respectively. Jamie and Toni are joined on the board by the former Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank Plc. and President of Barclays International, Tim Throsby, and Chairman of REA Group Limited, HT&E Limited, and Rugby Australia Limited and Deputy Chairman of Magellan Financial Group, Hamish McLennan, as new independent directors effective October 1, 2020 and October 29, 2020, respectively. The reconstituted board plans to focus on accelerating de-leveraging through a renewed focus on working capital management and will continue to review all strategic options to improve and maximize stockholder value. Ronald Perelman, former Executive Chairman of the Scientific Games Board and MacAndrews & Forbes Chairman and CEO, as well as Barry Schwartz and Frances Townsend, the two other MacAndrews & Forbes representatives, resigned from the Board effective September 16, 2020.

Impacts of COVID-19

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world implemented a number of measures to prevent its spread, including but not limited to, the temporary closure of a substantial number of gaming operations establishments and disruptions to lottery operations, travel restrictions, and cancellation of sporting events, which are affecting our business segments in a number of ways. During the latter part of the second quarter and throughout the remainder of 2020, lifting of restrictions began,

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including the reopening of the majority of gaming establishments globally and resumption of sporting events. During the fourth quarter of 2020 and in the response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain jurisdictions implemented additional temporary closures. As gaming operations have yet to return to pre-COVID levels, limited international travel, social distancing measures (which in some cases have required our customers to substantially reduce maximum floor capacity in many jurisdictions), decreased operating capacities, high unemployment rates and potential changes in consumer behaviors continued to negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition throughout 2020. Additionally, while most of casinos have reopened, it is unknown when mitigation measures (such as capacity limitations) will be lifted, all contributing to continued uncertainty into 2021.

Impact on Business Operations and Financial Results

Our Gaming business segment was especially impacted due to the widespread temporary closures and restricted reopening of a substantial number of gaming operations establishments coupled with global economic uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a rapidly evolving situation. Although businesses impacted by temporary closures during 2020 largely reopened domestically, our Participation gaming business revenue and cash flows continued to be significantly negatively affected, as they are largely driven by players’ disposable incomes and level of gaming activity. Social distancing measures that were implemented in many jurisdictions have and are expected to continue to have a negative impact on the amount of customer traffic within gaming establishments. The COVID-19 disruptions continue to cause periods of closures and modified operating schedules and may result in changes in customer behaviors, including a reduction in consumer discretionary spending as a result of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and unemployment levels. Additionally, our gaming machine and table product sales largely depend on our customers’ liquidity and operating results, which have negatively impacted the replacement cycle and demand for gaming machines, table products and opportunities from new or expanded markets. Further, we have granted customer concessions for a portion of the time for which such customers’ operations were impacted by closures. Also, based on historical Gaming customers’ orders and our manufacturing capacity, a substantial portion of Gaming machine sales are fulfilled in the third month of each quarter. Since March of 2020 when the COVID-19 disruptions became widespread, Gaming machine sales revenues have been and continue to be particularly negatively impacted. We believe this negative trend could reduce the capital expenditures of casino operators and continue to lengthen the replacement cycles of their existing gaming machines.

Unfavorable economic conditions caused by COVID-19 have caused and could continue to impact the timing of cash receipts from our Gaming customers. In addition, unfavorable economic conditions have caused, and could continue to cause, some of our Gaming customers to temporarily close gaming venues or ultimately declare bankruptcy, which would adversely affect our business. In recent years, our Gaming business has expanded the use of extended payment term financing for gaming machine purchases primarily in the LATAM region, and we expect to continue to provide a higher level of extended payment term financing in this business until demand from our customers for such financings abates or our business model changes. These financing arrangements may increase our collection risk, and if customers are not able to pay us, whether as a result of financial difficulties, bankruptcy or otherwise, we may incur provisions for bad debt related to our inability to collect certain receivables. In addition, both extended payment term financing and operating leases result in a delay in our receipt of cash, which reduces our cash balance, liquidity and financial flexibility to respond to changing economic events. Unfavorable economic conditions may also result in volatility in the credit and equity markets. The difficulty or inability of our customers to generate or obtain adequate levels of capital to finance their ongoing operations may reduce their ability to purchase our products and services. Refer to Note 6 for international locations with significant concentrations of our receivables with terms longer than one year.

During the first quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 disruptions resulted in the widespread closures of LBO shops across the U.K., which, along with global economic uncertainty, contributed to further deterioration in business conditions from our 2019 annual goodwill test date. This had an adverse effect on our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit (part of our Gaming business segment), which necessitated performing a quantitative goodwill impairment test during the first quarter of 2020. As a result of this analysis, during the first quarter of 2020 we recognized a partial impairment charge totaling $54 million. See Note 10 for additional goodwill information.

We increased our allowance for credit losses by $56 million during the year ended December 31, 2020. These increases were primarily related to certain Gaming customers in LATAM, including some who previously received extended payment terms. In the LATAM region it is often expected that such financing is provided, which extends the collection cycle, and increases our collection risk, especially under the current economic conditions which have been heavily impacted by the ongoing pandemic. Many of our customers in the LATAM region have been particularly affected by macroeconomic factors such as inflation, foreign exchange fluctuations, political instability and others. In addition, the preceding factors have been exacerbated by extended COVID-19 closures of gaming operations establishments. As described above, our customers in LATAM have been and are expected to continue to be affected by the COVID-19-related closures of gaming operations

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establishments and the resulting impact on both their specific financial situations and the general macroeconomic environments in which they operate.

During the year ended December 31, 2020, we recorded $48 million in inventory valuation charges (recorded in cost of product sales) related to inventory in our Gaming business segment. The 2020 charges are a result of a strategic revision of product roadmaps, and assessments related to how many and which platforms we will support, when we end service on legacy platforms and when we stop selling such platforms in conjunction with new product launches. The implementation of our strategic revision combined with the rapid erosion of market demand that took place in 2020 (due to COVID-19 disruptions), our increased focus on our go to market approach in LATAM (due to COVID-19 disruptions and the overall macro economic impact on the LATAM region), and our revised outlook on certain markets and customers, required us to reassess our inventory valuation. We determined we had excess or obsolete inventory based on the new strategy, a reduction in demand for legacy platforms, and projections for the disposition of the related inventory. In addition, the continued closures in the LATAM region made it difficult to execute our previous strategy of shipping legacy platforms into that market. The combination of these factors led to the $48 million inventory valuation charge recognized during 2020. Our policy is to continually review and assess these and other factors, and if such factors or our outlook changes, we will record further adjustments to the valuation of inventory.

Our Lottery business segment has experienced relative growth and recovery as the shelter in place orders and lockdowns have been eased back resulting in increased foot traffic and more spending by end players, coupled with international retail establishments that have now substantially re-opened. Lottery sales were down meaningfully initially as a result of the pandemic, but have since largely recovered in the U.S. and international markets.

The temporary closure of gaming operations, disruptions to lottery operations, travel restrictions, cancellation of

sporting events, lower disposable incomes of consumers and the adverse impact on our casino and gaming customers’ liquidity and financial results caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, had an adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition throughout 2020 and we anticipate will continue to a lesser degree into 2021.

Although the majority of gaming and lottery operations have re-opened, with encouraging initial results, we are unable to determine the ultimate magnitude and the length of time that the pandemic disruptions will continue to impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial condition, which will depend, among other factors, on the currently unknowable duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of governmental regulations and actions that might continue to be imposed in response to the pandemic, change in customer behaviors, social distancing measures, decreased gaming establishments operating capacity, high unemployment rates, and the pace of overall recovery of gaming and lottery operations globally. We implemented a number of measures to reduce operating costs and conserve liquidity including permanent reductions in workforce and temporary measures such as: reductions in salaries and workforce (all salaries back to 100% as of July 31, 2020), unpaid employee furloughs, temporary elimination of 401(k) matching among other compensation and benefits reductions and deferral of all non-essential operating and capital expenditures. These measures, combined with the above, have resulted in substantial cost savings in 2020. Additionally, reduced capital expenditures and the above measures are expected to result in an overall lower future cost structure.

Financings and Capital Markets Transactions

•During the year, we borrowed $530 million under SGI’s revolving credit facility, and made payments of $190 million, including a voluntary $100 million payment in the fourth quarter of 2020, against the balance drawn on the revolving credit facility. As of December 31, 2020, our total available liquidity (excluding our SciPlay business segment) was $850 million. In February of 2021, we made another voluntary payment of $100 million on SGI’s revolving credit facility.

•We amended the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant in the credit agreement with the requisite lenders under SGI’s revolving credit facility on May 8, 2020 (the “Credit Agreement Amendment”) and subsequently extended the Credit Agreement Amendment on October 8, 2020 (the “Credit Agreement Extension Amendment”) to implement a financial covenant relief period, which extends the relief period through the first quarter of 2022. As a result, (a) SGI is not required to maintain compliance with the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant during the Covenant Relief Period, (b) the step down of the consolidated net first lien leverage ratio covenant following the Covenant Relief Period was revised, (c) SGI must maintain liquidity (excluding SciPlay) of at least $275 million during the Covenant Relief Period, (d) SGI is restricted in its ability to further incur indebtedness and liens, make restricted payments and investments and prepay junior indebtedness during the Covenant Relief Period, subject to certain exceptions and further subject, in some instances, to maintaining minimum liquidity (excluding SciPlay) of at least $400 million and (e) a LIBOR floor of 0.500% was established on borrowings under the revolving credit facility during the Covenant Relief Period.

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The following table summarizes the revised consolidated net first lien leverage ratio and Consolidated EBITDA calculation for covenant purposes:

Revised Consolidated Net First Lien Leverage Ratio Covenant Calculation
Period ending	Revised Consolidated Net First Lien Leverage Ratio Covenant	Consolidated EBITDA multiplier1
3/31/2022	6.00x	4x Q1-2022
6/30/2022	6.00x	2x YTD Q2-2022
9/30/2022	5.75x	1.33x YTD Q3-2022
12/31/2022	5.75x	N/A - Calculated based on the previous 12 month period including the quarter being tested
3/31/2023	5.25x
6/30/2023	5.25x
9/30/2023	4.75x
12/31/2023	4.75x
3/31/2024 and thereafter	4.50x
(1) Consolidated EBITDA is defined in the Credit Agreement Extension Amendment and is calculated as testing year-to-date period-end consolidated EBITDA times multiplier.

•On July 1, 2020, we completed the issuance of $550 million in aggregate principal amount of 8.625% senior unsecured notes due 2025 in a private offering, for which we received total net proceeds of $543 million. We used a portion of the net proceeds to redeem all $341 million of our outstanding 2021 Notes and paid accrued and unpaid interest thereon plus related premiums, fees and costs, which redemption was completed on July 17, 2020, and are using the remaining net proceeds to fund working capital and general corporate purposes. This refinancing transaction extends our significant debt maturities until 2024. See Note 15 for additional long-term debt information.

Trends and Uncertainties

We have a number of trends and uncertainties that have impacted and may continue to impact our business and results of operations. Such impacts have in some cases been material and could be material in the future should they continue.

COVID-19. See above “Impacts of COVID-19” for uncertainties regarding the pandemic that continue to impact our business and results of operations.

Our high amount of leverage. We are a highly leveraged company which presents several challenges, including the dedication of a significant portion of our cash flow from operations to service interest and principal payments on our indebtedness.

International operations and foreign currency. We face challenges related to expanding our footprint within international markets and the related process of obtaining regulatory approvals to provide services and products within these new and emerging markets. Our LATAM customers operate in a difficult macroeconomic environment that (combined with political instability in the region and further compounded by COVID-19) has resulted in (a) a material reduction in revenue, (b) a reduction in the cash we have collected from these customers on previous sales and (c) charges for estimated credit losses, primarily contributing to our total consolidated charge of $56 million during 2020 (see Critical Accounting Estimates and Note 6). The recovery period in revenue and cash generated in the LATAM region is expected to be longer than in our other geographies and we anticipate lower revenues continuing through at least the first half of 2021.

Additionally, our international operations provide a significant portion of our total revenue and expenses. Many of these revenue and expenses are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar. We also have foreign currency exposure related to certain of our equity investments, cross-currency interest rate swaps, and Euro-denominated debt. As a result, changes in foreign exchange rates may significantly affect our results of operations.

A high level of competition, with competitor expansion. Our major competitors are expanding their product and service offerings with integrated products and solutions that compete directly with ours. For example, competition in our Gaming business segment is highly competitive and is characterized by the continuous introduction of new games, gaming machines and related technologies while our Lottery business segment continues to be subject to intense price-based competition. Our Digital business segment is facing challenges related to entering and expanding our market share within new and emerging markets, such as U.S. sports betting, which continues to be very competitive, while our SciPlay business segment continues to be highly competitive with low barriers to entry, rapid evolution, fragmented market and subject to changing technology, shifting needs and frequent introductions of new games, development platforms and services. See Part I, Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and Business Segment Results below describing competition and factors impacting each of our business segments.

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Seasonality. Our results of operations fluctuate due to seasonal trends and other factors impacting all of our business segments, particularly Gaming and SciPlay businesses. See Part I, Item 1 - Seasonality of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Restructuring charges. We have incurred restructuring charges related to severance for terminated employees in order to align our cost structure with operating cash flow requirements and streamlining our operations. Our most important strategic pillars are to (1) focus on accelerating de-leveraging and improving cash flow from operations and (2) enhancing our corporate culture and developing a high performance organization, all of which is expected to result in increased restructuring charges as we incur optimization expenses to execute and facilitate our strategies. See Note 4 for restructuring charges incurred for the last three years.

For additional trends and uncertainties impacting our business segments, refer below to Business Segment Results, specifically the Current Year Update section for each business segment.

Reportable Segments

We report our operations in four business segments — Gaming, Lottery, SciPlay and Digital — representing our different products and services. See Notes 2 and 3 for additional business segments information.

CONSOLIDATED RESULTS

(in millions)	Year Ended December 31,				Variance
	2020		2019		2020 vs. 2019
Total revenue	$	2,724	$	3,400	$	(676)	(20)	%
Total operating expenses	2,702		2,854		(152)		(5)	%
Operating income	22		546		(524)		(96)	%
Net loss before income taxes	(544)		(108)		(436)		(404)	%
Net loss	(548)		(118)		(430)		(364)	%
Net loss attributable to SGC	(569)		(130)		(439)		(338)	%

Revenue

Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2019

As described in the “Business Overview – Highlights, including recent developments – Impacts of COVID-19” section above, our 2020 total revenue, specifically revenues for the Gaming business segment, was adversely impacted by COVID-19

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disruptions. Gaming business segment 2020 revenue also reflects $36 million lower system revenues due to completion of certain Canadian systems launches that we benefited from in the prior year comparable period. Lottery revenue for 2020 was also negatively impacted by COVID-19 disruptions primarily impacting instant ticket sales, particularly during the first half of 2020.

SciPlay revenue increased by $116 million or 25 percent primarily due to continued growth in our mobile platform business and increased player engagement as a result of the stay at home measures across North America and other countries coupled with the ongoing popularity of Jackpot Party Casino, Gold Fish Casino, Quick Hits Slots, and MONOPOLY Slots.

Digital revenue increased by $23 million or 8 percent primarily due to increased Gaming revenue that benefited from increased free time and stay at home measures as a result of COVID-19 disruptions coupled with growth in Sports due to higher license revenue from key customer renewals and growth in the U.S. market.

Our 2020 consolidated revenues were impacted by $7 million of favorable F/X impact compared to $36 million of unfavorable impact in the prior year.

Operating expenses

	Year Ended December 31,				Variance
(in millions)	2020		2019		2020 vs. 2019
Operating expenses:
Cost of services(1)	$	531	$	538	$	(7)	(1)	%
Cost of product sales(1)	349		457		(108)		(24)	%
Cost of instant products(1)	280		289		(9)		(3)	%
SG&A	701		707		(6)		(1)	%
R&D	166		188		(22)		(12)	%
D&A	554		647		(93)		(14)	%
Goodwill impairment	54		—		54		100	%
Restructuring and other	67		28		39		139	%
Total operating expenses	$	2,702	$	2,854	$	(152)	(5)	%
(1) Excludes D&A.

Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 decreased primarily due to the COVID-19 disruptions described above resulting in Gaming machine sales revenue decreasing by 49% or $297 million. Additionally, the year ended December 31, 2020 Cost of product sales includes approximately $48 million, in Gaming segment inventory valuation charges, due to a decrease in demand for certain platforms as we believe that our customers will continue to extend replacement cycles to preserve their liquidity following their return to full operations combined with a reassessment of our Gaming product strategy, which was implemented during the year (see Note 7).

SG&A

SG&A decreased primarily due to the company-wide austerity measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 disruptions described above, which resulted in lower SG&A compensation and benefit expenses of $56 million for 2020. The decrease in SG&A was partially offset by an increase of $54 million in the Gaming business segment allowance for credit losses, that reflect forecasted credit deterioration due to the COVID-19 disruptions generally and credit weakness in our Latin America receivables portfolio specifically (see Note 6).

R&D

R&D decreased primarily due to company-wide austerity measures in response to the COVID-19 disruptions described above resulting in lower R&D compensation and benefit expenses of $15 million for 2020.

D&A

D&A decreased primarily due to certain Gaming intangible assets and software becoming fully amortized in the prior year.

Goodwill impairment

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Goodwill impairment increase was related to our legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit, which was recorded during the first quarter of 2020. See Note 10 for additional details on Goodwill impairment charges.

Restructuring and other

The increase is primarily due to severance and related charges associated with COVID-19 disruptions. See Note 4 for additional details on Restructuring and other charges.

Other Factors Affecting 2020 and 2019 Net Loss Attributable to SGC Comparability

(in millions)	Year Ended December 31,
					Factors Affecting Net Loss
	2020		2019		2020 vs. 2019
Interest expense	$	(503)	$	(589)	The decrease in interest expense for the year ended December 31, 2020 reflects the favorable impact of 2019 refinancing activities resulting in lower interest costs (refinancing activities for 2020 are further discussed in “Liquidity, Capital Resources and Working Capital” and for both periods in Note 15).
Loss on debt financing transactions	(1)		(100)		Loss on debt financing transactions consummated during 2019 includes $80 million in premium charges associated with redemptions of the 2022 Unsecured Notes (see Note 15) in the second and fourth quarters of 2019.
(Loss) gain on remeasurement of debt	(51)		9		(Losses) and gains are attributable to remeasurement of the 2026 Secured Euro Notes and 2026 Unsecured Euro Notes and primarily reflect changes in the Euro vs. the U.S. Dollar foreign exchange rates between the periods. In 2019 the USD strengthened vs. the Euro by 3% and in 2020 the USD weakened by 9%.
Income tax expense(1)	(4)		(10)		The decrease is primarily due to the decrease in worldwide income due to COVID-19 and the overall worldwide mix of income (loss).
(1) For additional information regarding the changes in our effective tax rates and the variance in our income tax expense, see Note 20.

Foreign exchange (F/X)

Our results are impacted by changes in foreign currency exchange rates used in the translation of foreign functional currencies into USD and the re-measurement of foreign currency transactions or balances. The impact of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations represents the difference between current rates and prior-period rates applied to current activity. Our exposure to foreign currency volatility on revenue is as follows:

(in millions)	Year Ended December 31,
	2020						2019
	Revenue		% Consolidated Revenue		F/X Impact on Revenue		Revenue		% Consolidated Revenue		F/X Impact on Revenue
Foreign Currency:
British Pound Sterling	$	323	12	%	$	3	$	331	10	%	$	(18)
Euro(1)	237		9	%	3		248		7	%	(13)
(1) Our earnings from our Euro-denominated equity investment in LNS were $10 million and $16 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

See “Business Segment Results” below for a more detailed explanation of the significant changes in our components of revenue and expenses within the individual segment results of operations.

For 2019 and 2018 consolidated, business segment and cash flow results comparisons, see Part II, Item 7 of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

BUSINESS SEGMENT RESULTS

The types of products and services from which our segments derive their revenues are further discussed in Notes 2 and 3. Certain financial information relating to our segments, including segment revenue, AEBITDA and total assets for the last three fiscal years and certain financial information relating to our revenue derived from and assets located in the U.S. and other geographic areas is included in Note 2.

GAMING

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Our Gaming business segment designs, develops, manufactures, markets and distributes a comprehensive portfolio of gaming products and services. We provide our Gaming portfolio of products and services to commercial casinos, Native American casinos, wide-area gaming operators such as LBOs, arcade and bingo operators in the U.K. and continental Europe, and government agencies and their affiliated operators. Our equity investment in RCN is included in our Gaming business segment.

The following table summarizes the primary business activities included in our Gaming business segment.

	Services	Product sales
Gaming operations	Service revenues from gaming operations are derived from WAP, premium and daily-fee Participation gaming machines and other leased gaming machines (including VLTs and ETSs) and licensing arrangements.	N/A
Gaming machine sales	N/A	Sale of new and used gaming machines, ETSs and VLTs, conversion game kits and spare parts.
Gaming systems	We provide services which include installation and support of CMSs, including ongoing hardware maintenance and ongoing software maintenance and upgrade services of customer CMSs.	We offer CMSs that help our customers improve communication with players, add excitement to the gaming floor and enhance operating efficiencies.
Table products	Revenue is generated from supplied table products and services (including Shufflers).	Sale of table products (including Shufflers) and PTG licensing.

Gaming Operations    

Our services revenue includes revenue earned from Participation games, other gaming machine services and table product service arrangements. We categorize our Participation gaming machines as (1) U.S. and Canada units and (2) International units. The following are different types of Participation games from which we derive our revenue:

•WAP Participation games: WAP Participation games are electronically linked gaming machines that are located across multiple casinos within both single and multiple gaming jurisdictions or across Native American gaming jurisdictions. Players across linked gaming machines contribute to and compete for system-wide progressive jackpots that are designed to increase gaming machine play for participating casinos by giving the players the opportunity to win a larger jackpot than on a non-WAP gaming machine. We are responsible for funding WAP jackpots. We create WAP games using our proprietary brands and also using licensed brands. We operate our WAP systems in five states throughout the U.S. and in certain Native American casinos.

•Premium and daily fee Participation games: We offer two categories of non-WAP premium and daily fee Participation games: LAP and standalone. LAP games are gaming machines that are located within a single casino and are electronically linked to a progressive jackpot for that specific casino. Our LAP gaming machines feature games including those offered as WAP and our proprietary brands such as Ultimate Fire Link®, Dragon Spin®, Ultra Hot Mega Link®, 88 Fortunes, Invaders from the Planet Moolah®, 5 Treasures®, Cash SpinTM and Dancing Drums Explosion®. Our LAP products leverage both exclusive brand names and game play intellectual property, and typically offer players the chance to win multiple progressive jackpots, all of which tend to result in higher play volumes. We also provide certain standalone Participation games that are not linked to other gaming machines. Our standalone games feature titles under both licensed brands and our proprietary brands. Our standalone Participation gaming machines generally feature larger, more elaborate top-boxes and provide game play experiences not possible on a single screen game or on gaming machines that we sell.

•Server-based gaming: We provide wide-area gaming operators, such as LBOs, bingo halls and arcades, a comprehensive package of server-based products and services under long term contracts that typically include gaming machines, remote management of game content and management information, central computer systems, secure data communication and field support services. We are typically paid a fee based on the Net win generated by these gaming machines (subject to certain adjustments as may be specified in a particular contract, including adjustments for taxes and other fees). Our business in this category is primarily based in the U.K.

•VLTs: For certain customers, we provide our multi-game and single-game VLTs, which include video gaming machines, mechanical reel gaming machines and video poker games. Our VLTs may be operated as standalone units or may interface with central monitoring systems operated by government agencies. Our VLTs are typically located in places where casino-style gaming is not the only attraction, such as racetracks, bars and restaurants.

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•Class II and centrally determined systems: We offer video and mechanical-reel gaming machines and VLTs for Class II and certain VLT jurisdictions where the game outcome is determined by a central server system that we provide. These Class II and centrally determined systems primarily operate in Native American casinos in Washington, Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma. We receive either a fixed daily fee or a percentage of the Net win generated by the gaming machines or VLTs connected to the central determination system and a small daily fee for the central determination system.

Gaming Machine Sales

The majority of our product sales are derived from sales of gaming machines and VLTs that use a combination of advanced graphics, mechanical reels, digital music and sounds and secondary bonus games. We also sell ETSs to either meet the needs of particular locations where live tables are not allowed or as productivity-enhancing solutions for other jurisdictions.

Gaming Systems

Our comprehensive suite of technology solutions provides gaming operations of every size with a wide range of marketing, data management and analysis, accounting, player tracking, security and other applications and tools to more effectively manage their operations. Gaming systems products include the iVIEW® touch screen display, which facilitates the player experience, bonus features, customer service, and employee functions. Gaming systems revenues related to core system solutions are highly dependent on new installations. Gaming system revenues are also generated through ongoing hardware and software maintenance services and upgrades.

Table Products

Our table product sales are generated primarily from the sale of products designed to enhance table game speed, productivity, profitability and security. Our product offerings include various models of Shufflers to suit specific games.

We also offer Shuffler products under month-to-month arrangements that primarily contain fixed monthly rates or to a lesser extent Participation rates. These arrangements include service of the product with back-up and replacement products available at the customer’s request.

We license our PTG content to commercial, tribal and governmental casino operators typically under month to month arrangements based on fixed monthly rates. PTGs, which are designed to enhance operators’ table-game operations, include our internally developed and acquired PTGs, side bets, add-ons and progressive features. Our proprietary content and features are also added to public domain games such as poker, baccarat, pai gow poker, craps and blackjack table games and to electronic platforms.

Current year update

See the “Recent Events – Impacts of COVID-19” section above for a description of the COVID-19 impact on our Gaming business segment, which continues to have an adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows into 2021 and as COVID-19 mitigation measures continue to be implemented and enforced. In addition to the adverse effect of COVID-19, we anticipate further declines in our gaming operations, systems, products and services revenues due to certain large Canadian contracts that were completed in 2019. Further challenges include: (1) a replacement market that remains unpredictable given several large customer consolidations; (2) fewer casino openings and expansions; (3) continued competition for new systems, gaming operations, gaming machines and table products businesses; and (4) other economic and regulatory pressures that affect our business operations globally. Additionally, our Gaming operations installed base at period end has declined for both U.S. and Canada and International markets from 33,585 and 33,744 in 2018 to 30,105 and 32,061 in 2020, respectively. Gaming operations generated 36%, 34% and 35% of total Gaming segment revenues for 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. While our new Gaming business segment leadership team has developed a strategy to reverse this trend, the implementation of such strategy and reversal of this trend and decline in our Gaming operations installed base at period end is expected take longer than a year.

Our 2021 Gaming revenues are expected to benefit from a rebate of value added tax in the U.K. from a tax ruling made in 2020 (“U.K. VAT rebate”). We believe we will be entitled to such rebates as the previous tax position impacted our historical contractual gaming revenue for certain of our U.K. LBO server-based gaming customers. While the total amount and timing of the U.K. VAT rebate is currently uncertain and dependent on claim submissions by our customers and government approvals, all of which are outside of our control, we estimate that we could be entitled to up to $60 million.

Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2019

Results of Operations and Key Performance Indicators

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1 - The year ended December 31, 2019 includes $10 million in IP charges paid by the SciPlay business segment, which are no longer being paid as of May 7, 2019 in connection with the IP License Agreement.

Revenue

(in millions)	Year Ended December 31,				Variance
	2020		2019		2020 vs. 2019
Revenue:
Gaming operations	$	332	$	597	$	(265)	(44)	%
Gaming machine sales	312		609		(297)		(49)	%
Gaming systems	171		295		(124)		(42)	%
Table products	111		247		(136)		(55)	%
Total revenue	$	926	$	1,748	$	(822)	(47)	%
F/X impact on revenue	$	3	$	(14)	$	17	121	%
	Year Ended December 31,				Variance
	2020		2019		2020 vs. 2019
KPIs:
U.S. and Canada units:
Installed base at period end	30,105		31,486		(1,381)		(4)	%
Average daily revenue per unit	$	23.57	$	38.67	$	(15.10)