Esports will take center stage in Las Vegas during the second weekend in September.
The first-ever Casino eSports Conference will take place on Sept. 7th and 8th, followed on Sept. 9th and 10th by Gameacon, a video gaming convention that will be hosted in Las Vegas for the first time. Both will be held at the Westgate Las Vegas.
The purpose of the Casino eSports Conference is to connect esports hardware suppliers, esports teams, tournament organizers, streaming companies, publishers, marketers, lawyers, educators and game makers to the casino industry, according to Ben Fox, one of the producers of GAC Events, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Fox Marketing, of which he is a partner.
“We’re entering a new era of esports gaming, and it’s becoming clear that the casino industry should find a way to incorporate esports into future casino models,” Fox said. “The CEC will provide a critical introduction between casino industry executives and esports industry professionals and related millennial gaming products.”
The Casino eSports conference overlaps with the bi-annual Gameacon conference, which is an incubator for new games. Gameacon, short for Game Arts Conference, was designed as a grass roots celebration of gaming fans and the artistry of game developers, and was created to allow fans to meet others who share their passion for gaming and to showcase “cool new products and to celebrate the creativity and artistry,” Fox said. The event has been held in Atlantic City since 2014.
All CEC guests are encouraged to stay throughout the Gameacon conference, according to Fox, who added the experience will provide “valuable insight into the type of environment in which this generation feels most comfortable.”
Fox Marketing, which has worked with the casino industry for more than 20 years, has also forged relationships with people in the esports industry and gained a deep understanding of the market, Fox said.
“Working within both worlds has afforded a unique insight into how a symbiotic partnership can be forged between the casino industry and the exploding world of esports,” Fox said. “Esports must inevitably become part of the casino market, but the successful forging of this partnership cannot happen without each market being educated about the unique legalities, demographics, culture and terminology of the other.”
In April, MGM Resorts International announced a partnership with Allied Esports to build the first permanent eSports venue on the Strip at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. It will open in early 2018. The venue will have a competition stage and daily gaming stations along with a LED video wall. Another esports venue is already open in downtown Las Vegas.
It’s all part of the burgeoning strategy of the casino industry to attract millennials to their properties. One-third of Las Vegas tourists are millennials, a percentage that has grown significantly in recent years.
Many conferences have discussed and educated the casino industry about esports, but Fox said the CEC intends to continue this education with a more hands-on approach to the newest trends in esports and to break down the different sections that each area of the casino needs to consider and understand. Legal, marketing, operations and employment perspectives for the day-to-day operations of esports inside a casino environment will be discussed.
The CEC will feature keynote speaker Karl Bennison, chief of the Nevada Gaming Board’s enforcement division. Other speakers include Robert Rippee, director of the esports lab for the
International Gaming Institute of Las Vegas, and Seth Schorr, chairman of Downtown Grand and CEO of Fifth Street Gaming.
Other speakers include Melissa Blau, director and consultant of iGaming Capital, one of the catalysts of iGaming; Blaine Graboyes, CEO of Game Co.; and Alex Ingleman CEO, of Millennial eSports Corp.
“Our objective is that people will go to the CEC and leave with a plan whether to build an esports lounge and start hosting competitions at their properties,” Fox said. “We’re creating a forum for all of that to happen, so it’s a very hands-on type of event. We’re not just going to go there to talk and talk and talk and then nothing happens after that.”
Fox said Gameacon started in 2014 in Atlantic City after he and his brother, Ari, decided they needed to marry the two worlds of the esports and the casino industry. It’s based on the familiar Comicon concept dedicated to the comics, fantasy, SciFi, and role-playing communities. The convention involves creators, voice actors, film and everything that’s video gaming, competitions and tournaments.
“We saw that it’s necessary for the casino industry to bring more people into the casinos,” Fox said. “It was our intention to educate the whole market on how that could be done effectively, and that casinos could benefit from it and make money from it, whether it’s with wagering or hosting events or just starting to get millennials involved in this space. It’s conducive to a great place to hold events.”
Once they started Gameacon in Atlantic City, Fox said their intention was always to bring one to Las Vegas, and combining it with the CEC was a natural fit.
“It’s really easing them in and teaching them at the same time,” Fox said. “It introduces the casino executives to tournament organizers and suppliers. Our dream is to change the look of the casino floor. Instead of walking down the casino floor and seeing all these vacant slot machines and table games, which millennials (don’t) like to play, a big portion of that would be apportioned to what they like to play, which is video games or skill-based games that can be monetized in the casino world.”
The cost of CEC is $695 for an individual in early registration and $795 on site. Groups get a discount of $595 a person in early registration and $695 on site.
