Gaming giants Aristocrat Leisure and Gentle & Surprise have reached a settlement overlaying all lawsuits in Australia and the U.S. tied to Gentle & Surprise’s Dragon Prepare and Jewel of the Dragon slot games.
The dispute started when Aristocrat accused Gentle & Surprise of utilizing its commerce secrets and techniques and copyrighted materials to develop the 2 video games. Whereas the businesses aren’t sharing all the main points of their settlement, they did verify a couple of essential factors.
Gentle & Surprise can pay Aristocrat $127.5 million to settle the claims over the alleged misuse of Aristocrat’s mental property.
Gentle & Surprise shares soar 25%+ on the open after settling with Aristocrat for $190m. That's $2b+ in market share achieve for $190m money settlement. Will need to have been industrial scale theft they acquired away with as buyers anticipated the worst: https://t.co/gVD8qGb7EM
— Stephen Mayne (@MayneReport) January 11, 2026
The corporate additionally acknowledged in a press release that “sure Aristocrat math data was utilized in reference to the event of each Dragon Prepare and Jewel of the Dragon.” As a part of the deal, Gentle & Surprise has agreed to utterly cease promoting and selling each video games worldwide, and to do its finest to tug any machines already out within the area.
It additionally received’t use any of Aristocrat’s mathematical fashions or copyrighted materials that had been on the heart of the lawsuit, and it’ll completely destroy any paperwork that include that data.
The 2 firms have additionally arrange confidential processes to take care of any doable use of Aristocrat’s math in a few of Gentle & Surprise’s current “Maintain & Spin” video games and titles which are nonetheless in improvement. That features video games whose math fashions had beforehand been reviewed by the courtroom throughout the U.S. case.
In return, Aristocrat will drop all of its authorized claims in opposition to Gentle & Surprise in each Australia and the USA.
Each firms stated they recognise the significance of defending mental property within the gaming trade, acknowledging “the numerous funding and innovation that goes into recreation design and improvement together with the advanced and confidential underlying math and the necessity to guarantee safety of these worthwhile, proprietary belongings.”
So, Gentle & Surprise has successfully admitted it stole Aristocrat's mental property to make poker machines that could possibly be as devastating and addictive as what the worldwide chief does. Very insightful when playing predators battle https://t.co/OemswHs8A4
— Stephen Mayne (@MayneReport) January 11, 2026
Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director Trevor Croker stated the settlement reveals simply how critically the corporate takes defending its mental property. “Aristocrat welcomes honest competitors however will at all times robustly defend and implement its mental property rights. As an concepts and innovation firm our mental property is important to our ongoing success.
“We’re dedicated to defending the good work of our devoted artistic and technical groups. We welcome this optimistic final result, which incorporates vital monetary compensation and follows the decisive motion we took to make sure the preservation of Aristocrat’s worthwhile mental property belongings. This decisive motion included securing a preliminary injunction in September 2024, at which period the courtroom recognised that Gentle & Surprise was capable of develop Dragon Prepare by utilizing Aristocrat’s worthwhile commerce secrets and techniques and with out investing the equal money and time.”
Gentle & Surprise CEO Matt Wilson stated the corporate was happy to see the dispute resolved and burdened its ongoing dedication to compliance and innovation. “Gentle & Surprise is happy to resolve this matter and transfer ahead. We’re firmly dedicated to doing enterprise the precise method – respecting our rivals’ mental property rights whereas defending our personal rights. This matter arose when a former worker inappropriately used sure Aristocrat math with out our information and in direct violation of our insurance policies. Upon discovery, we took rapid motion and have since carried out strengthened processes aimed toward stopping related points sooner or later.
“This settlement protects the pursuits of our prospects, staff, and shareholders, and permits us to proceed our deal with creating and delivering the market-leading content material our prospects count on—with out distraction or disruption.”
Background to the Gentle & Surprise and Aristocrat settlement
The authorized battle kicked off in June 2024, when Aristocrat sued Light & Wonder in the U.S., claiming the Dragon Prepare video games had been constructed utilizing its proprietary math fashions and copyrighted recreation options. A couple of months later, in September, a federal courtroom in Nevada sided with Aristocrat and issued a preliminary injunction, stopping Dragon Prepare from being offered or distributed within the U.S. after ruling it was “extraordinarily possible” that commerce secrets and techniques had been misused.
Then in April 2025, the dispute widened to additionally cowl Gentle & Surprise’s Jewel of the Dragon collection. Analysts at Macquarie reported that Jewel of the Dragon had been drawn into the litigation attributable to similarities with Aristocrat’s Dragon Hyperlink video games, together with “similar jackpot layouts, logos, and bonus options such because the Maintain and Spin mechanic.”
Macquarie identified that Jewel of the Dragon had a a lot smaller footprint than Dragon Prepare, which had already rolled out greater than 10,000 machines in Australia alone. Due to that, the financial institution stated the monetary hit from Jewel of the Dragon was prone to be pretty restricted.
Then, in October 2025, the case took one other flip when a federal courtroom in Nevada approved Aristocrat’s renewed request to overview the mathematical fashions behind sure Gentle & Surprise “Maintain & Spin” video games launched since 2021, the identical 12 months former Aristocrat worker Emma Charles joined Gentle & Surprise.
On the time, Gentle & Surprise stated in a press release: “The Nevada Court docket heard argument right now and granted Aristocrat’s renewed movement to acquire discovery of math fashions for sure Gentle & Surprise maintain and spin video games launched since 2021, when Emma Charles joined the corporate.
“The Court docket beforehand denied an analogous movement. Whereas we’re disillusioned with the Court docket’s ruling, we stay assured, primarily based on the skilled overview we beforehand disclosed, that there is no such thing as a proof of Aristocrat math being utilized in any commercially launched video games aside from Dragon Prepare and Jewel of the Dragon.”
The corporate additionally warned in courtroom filings that disclosure of its inside recreation design and mathematical fashions might trigger vital business hurt, stating that “even a ‘glimpse’ into enterprise and improvement methods might hurt L&W’s ‘aggressive standing.’”
The settlement lastly wraps up greater than a 12 months of authorized battles that had put two of Gentle & Surprise’s greatest slot franchises underneath a cloud and compelled a number of video games to be pulled or placed on maintain.
Featured picture: Aristocrat / Gentle & Surprise
The put up Aristocrat and Light & Wonder settle Dragon Train lawsuit for $127.5M appeared first on ReadWrite.
