Two players respond to questions prior to their matchup during the weekend League of Legends Spring Split in Las Vegas.
With Las Vegas casinos looking for more ways to engage millennials, the weekend League of Legends Spring Split at the Mandalay Bay could be a glimpse of the very near future.
Held Saturday and Sunday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, thousands of millennials mostly ranging in age from their late teens to about mid 20s packed the Events Center for Saturday’s consolation final, followed by the championship event on Sunday afternoon.
The live-streamed, sold-out event drew visitors from around the globe, many of them decked out in their favorite League of Legends game characters and team colors. League of Legends is a free-to-play “battle arena” with online multiplayer. Players compete against others and common opponents, and has been around since 2009.
During the weekend’s playoff, international teams of five players each vied in one-on-one virtual combat on an elevated stage with a theater-sized screen showing the live action to the thousands of fans in the sold out arena. Winners were determined in a best-of-five format, and teams accrued points toward qualifying for the world championship later this year.
Outside the gaming area, spectators packed the merchandise tables and concessions.
As with the Super Bowl and other championship events, announcers and analysts provided detailed insights into game strategies, tactics and potential outcomes, and post-competition interviews and insights.
Events like the League of Legends Spring Split are popular among millennials, who fall squarely within the demographic many casinos are starting to court with activities and events focused on the needs of millennial visitors.
Fans sit in a darkened arena, watching intently as the competitions unfold on a large, overhead screen, and cheer wildly during the critical moments that decide the match.
Like any competition, some competitors will have advantages over others, but the stakes are high, with the eventual world championship team takes home a $5 million prize, plus likely lucrative sponsorship deals. Fans have their favorite teams and players, and team and game merchandise sell fast.
For the casino, the event generated money off room bookings, venue fees, event and support services, audio-visual equipment, catering, food and beverage, and other revenue streams that aren’t related to gambling.
While the average gambler on the Las Vegas Strip is nearly 48 years of age and gambles about $550 during an average stay of about three days, millennials don’t share their gaming preferences.
Thousands of millennial-age spectators packed the Mandalay Bay Events Center to cheer on their favorite teams during the League of Legends Spring Split.
Instead of slots, studies show millennials greatly prefer interactive, immersive forms of gaming more akin to the video and online games they grew up playing. That means declining slots-driven revenues on the Las Vegas Strip are likely to continue declining over the long term. But eSports eventually could offset a good amount of those lost slots revenues.
Events like the League of Legends Spring Split have a strong potential for growth and a potential for generating gaming revenues among millennials. Organized by Riot Games, the League of Legends is just one of several emerging eSports events that eventually could involve regulated wagering, much like football, basketball, and other sports.
The Big 10 Conference on Friday is holding its inaugural BTN Invitational: A University League of Legends Event, which might be televised live on the Big Ten Network. Other colleges and conferences, likewise, have League of Legends clubs and teams vying in various competitions, and those might soon become sanctioned conference events with official titles awarded.
Like a sanctioned NCAA football game, it’s possible to handicap an eSports event and take wagers, and efforts to legalize daily fantasy sports could lead to efforts to legalize eSports wagering.
Nevada gaming regulators are working on and likely will enact regulations that would make Daily Fantasy Sports wagering legal in Nevada. Whether or not that happens before the fall football season begins remains to be seen, but casino operators, daily fantasy sports firms, sports books, and many state lawmakers firmly support efforts to establish regulations for daily fantasy sports and open up another revenue stream for the gaming industry.
Should such efforts result in successful regulation of daily fantasy sports, there’s a good chance eSports and similar gaming competitions also would benefit from regulatory approvals in the coming years. In the meantime, Las Vegas casino operators are paying attention to what attracts millennials and gets them excited while they are in Las Vegas.
In Downtown Las Vegas, The Grand has built a dedicated eSports arena, where a team from Australia practices several weeks each year. Like League of Legends, many online video games have millions of fans around the globe, and they will travel to watch their favorite teams play in their favorite games in large arenas.
That means more international visitation to Las Vegas, and increasing international visitation is a primary goal of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).
The LVCVA wants to drive more international visitation to Las Vegas, and is in the middle of a 10-year, $2.3 billion improvement to the Las Vegas Convention Center as part of its plan to maintain the city’s status as the world’s top destination for conventions and trade shows.
Aside from potential eSporting conventions and tradeshows, eSports likely won’t boost the city’s standing as a convention destination. But its obvious international appeal certainly will help with the LVCVA’s goal of increasing international visitation.
And if the state ever regulates it, more millennials might line up inside sports books to wager on their favorite teams. Some might even lay down some money to compete in eSports competitions held in smaller gaming venues within casinos, with the house keeping a cut of the action, just like in a poker room.
