American gaming machine and systems innovator Scientific Games Corporation has announced that Barry Cottle (pictured) has been appointed to take over from Kevin Sheehan as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

Las Vegas-based Scientific Games Corporation revealed that Cottle currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for its SG Interactive subsidiary and is scheduled to take up his new post from the first day of June with Sheehan remaining in an advisory role.

Scientific Games Corporation detailed that Cottle has previously held executive posts with Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Electronic Arts Incorporated, Palm Computing Incorporated, Zynga Incorporated and The Walt Disney Company and joined its ranks in August of 2015 to lead its SG Interactive concern. Under his stewardship, it stated that he helped the subordinate to double revenue growth while spearheading its January acquisition of iGaming innovator NYX Gaming Group Limited.

Cottle described innovation as ‘the cornerstone’ of Scientific Games Corporation’s strategy and declared that the firm will continue to relentlessly seek greater efficiencies and adaptability ‘across all our business units and platforms’ in an effort to make the most of ‘new and growing markets’.

“Scientific Games Corporation’s expertise and passion for innovation is an invaluable asset as we continue to build cutting-edge technology to enhance the player experience for both retail and digital platforms,” read a Wednesday statement (pdf) from Cottle.

In advance of stepping down, Sheehan stated that he was ‘proud of what we have accomplished over the past two years’ due to Scientific Games Corporation being ‘stronger than ever and growing across all our divisions’. He described Cottle as a ‘great partner’ before declaring that he was now looking forward to ‘supporting his efforts to lead Scientific Games Corporation into the digital future’.

“With the acquisition of NYX [Gaming Group Limited] and the rapid growth of our entire interactive business, Scientific Games Corporation is poised to lead the future as the entire gaming industry transitions to new digital and mobile platforms,” read a statement from Sheehan.

In addition to Cottle’s promotion, Scientific Games Corporation detailed that it has hired Tim Bucher to serve as its new Executive Vice-President and Chief Product Officer. It proclaimed that the veteran software entrepreneur was previously Consumer Solutions Group General Manager and Senior Vice-President for data storage firm Seagate Technology and holds in excess of 40 patents involving areas such as computer, processor and interface design alongside multimedia and graphics technologies.