The 2007 financial crash was particularly hard on Aristocrat. The CEO was forced to enact sweeping budget cuts, including large-scale reductions of staff from all areas of the business. 2009 was another tough year for the company, with its full year resulting in a net loss of $157.8m.
In 2011, the company reached an agreement with Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis, to provide equipment and games for Alberta's video lottery terminal network. It continued to expand through the 2010s. In 2014, Aristocrat agreed to buy Video Gaming Technologies for about $1.3bn, tripling its North American business amid falling profit in its native Australia.
Aristocrat continued to flourish internationally, purchasing Israel-based mobile game developer Plarium for $500m to enter the mobile gaming market. This was quickly followed by the acquisition of mobile game developer Big Fish Games for $990 million.
In July 2019, Aristocrat tangled with its founder Len Ainsworth who had gone on to form a different company, Ainsworth Game Technology. It sued Ainsworth, alleging that they had used proprietary codes leaked by a former Aristocrat employee to produce a clone of its popular ‘Lightning Link’ games.
In 2021 it was awarded with the ‘land-based product’, ‘land-based industry supplier’ and ‘slot of the year’ accolades from the Global Gaming Awards in Las Vegas.
