From community tournaments with amateurs to large professional tournaments that can fill arenas, casinos across the country can profit from esports.
That’s the message from a panel of esports experts on the final day of the Casino eSports Conference at Luxor Las Vegas.
Esports is very much about playing tournaments but it’s also just as much about watching as with other spectator sports.
Alex Igelman, executive chairman of Millennial Esports, which built an esports arena in downtown Las Vegas in an entertainment complex, said tournaments can be money makers, both ones hosting professionals and smaller scale competition.
“You are going get thousands of people depending on the event and venue that you have like a boxing match or UFC fight,” Igelman said. “If you have to attract a viewership audience, you have the massive teams coming and fill the MGM Grand Garden. Or you can fill room like we’re in and have a local tournament for the Las Vegas Valley and have an afternoon of people here spending money.”
Seth Schorr, CEO of the Downtown Grand in Las Vegas – one of the first casinos to host esports tournaments – said the concept is nothing new for the gaming business. Casinos have been hosting slot machine and poker tournaments for decades.
Four years ago, when the Downtown Grand held its first esports tournament, the idea was to capture a new demographic in the casino.
“We don’t make money on the tournaments, but we make money because we invited dozens or hundreds of players that spend money in the casino,” Schorr said. “That is a model we are used to in our business. It is about understanding how we can leverage our facility, whether it’s our pool or night club, and to make a compelling experience that people are willing to pay for.”
Earlier this year, IGT unveiled four virtual reality games. Two archery games were tested at the Orleans in Las Vegas. All four games are now are being tested at the Margaritaville Resort in Mississippi. Michael Shorrock, vice president of game studios interactive with IGT, said there’s excitement of what can happen with tournaments at properties.
“It is accessible to various level of expertise with players,” Shorrock said. “You can arrange tournaments, so novice players play with other novice players and enter a novice tournament and win a $150. You don’t have to win these crazy amounts with esports. It allows for a lot of fun that way.”
Shorrock said virtual zone tournaments are in their infancy. IGT has held the events where players pay $15 for a daily tournament with a prize awarded at the end of the day for those on the leaderboard.
“It can grow to something much bigger and that’s our vision,” Shorrock said. “You start out grass roots and go then local to regional to national.”
The moderator of the panel, Arieh Fox, who hosted the esports conference with his brother Ben, said casinos have much to offer in the way of experiences that make them attractive to host tournaments.
Schorr said whether offering $1,500 in prizes or $150, events can attract the same people. It’s more about what people are getting for the experience.
“We’re in the business of creating experiences,” Schorr said. “If they are paying $20 to have fun for many hours, the environment we can create in the casino business are more sophisticated than in a strip mall that is just about gaming.”
With much of gaming going mobile, Igelman said there doesn’t need to be a lot of expense. Events can be hosted by having 100 tablets.
“You are building this new nightclub of the future,” Igelman said, adding that people will come and spend money doing things that they enjoy.
There are opportunities to partner with publishers of games to help put up prize money. Even large corporate partners, such as Red Bull, Mountain Dew, could put up prize money for professional events that might have a $5 million pool, the experts said.
Igelman said casinos, however, face competition from companies like Amazon, which built a division called GameOn.
“It is pure gambling,” Igelman said. “They launch it in certain countries and they fill it with prizes from the Amazon store. It’s all seamless. They are launching this globally. That is going to be a game changer if they do it right.”
Schorr said casinos need to do a better job of being friendly to the esports community in trying to attract them.
“What I have yet to see any casino do is truly create an esports brand,” Schorr said. “MGM Resorts and this property has committed so much to esports. Hats off to what they have done. They have held three major tournaments and run local tournaments at Level Up at the MGM Grand and have the Esports Arena, but there isn’t an MGM esports website yet.”
Schorr said the Downtown Grand is going to expand its esports offering beyond the younger demographic and will soon announce and esports festival. It’s part of casting a wide net to focus on the casual mobile player that will bring women and an older people centered around families.
“Having a father and son tournament can be far more exciting than only have 22-year-olds,” Schorr said. “It’s a big age group but has limited disposable income.”
