Dreamhack Masters is set to take place in Vegas in 2017 and will feature a $450,000 prize. Expecting a spectator turnout to match the hype, organisers are putting the event in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Games will run from February 15th to the 19th and are expected to be a noticeable impact on the gambling capital of the world this time. What were once niche gamer hobbies in competitive gaming are now a household event with TBS streaming CS:GO and other ELeague games in prime time.
Image Courtesy MGMgrandgardenarena.com
Las Vegas doesn’t just want a slice of the esports cake. They want to become the esports capital of the world! This is quite an ambitious goal, even for “Sin City.” There are cities all over the world with much larger esports demands, and there seems little reason for organizations in cities like L.A. or Seoul, South Korea to want to relocate.
That doesn’t mean Las Vegas couldn’t make a fantastic esports hub, especially with the influx of people itching to throw around some money. Afterall, betting on esports is already a well-established hobby for fans and participants alike.
There are a few things Las Vegas has that many cities do not. First off, they have money, and lots of it in the form of both tax revenue for government ventures and business capital from all the businesses on the strip (and more). Las Vegas gets so many visitors on a daily basis that bring a fair amount of money that they are usually at least somewhat comfortable with losing—esports gambling opens up a whole new stream of revenue for Vegas casinos—visitors comfortable losing money in a game of skill, or betting on others they think they know will win. Esports betters already do this when obsessively studying certain gamer’s Twitch streams before betting on them.
Las Vegas has seen this growing market, and their catering to these events is nothing new. More interesting, however, is that Vegas has seen the writing is on the wall, and businesses are positioning themselves to begin drawing the regular competitive gamers and gamblers—not just spectators—into the fold. A handful of startups and companies are vying to be the first ones to corner this already-emerged demographic of esports betting.
Las Vegas has arenas that are ready and willing to host esports events. They could easily make casino room for esports sections, and they are already thinking about making gaming centers geared towards esports.
The Downtown Grand Hotel is even making room to transform their hotel and casino into an “esports hotel” (sounds pretty great, right?), and already devotes much time and effort into hosting smaller esports tournaments like “Finish Him! Friday,” a one-on-one Mortal Kombat XL contest.
And larger gaming leagues haven’t overlooked the prime esports real estate that is Las Vegas. Activision Blizzard, alongside Major League Gaming, has already held a large Overwatch tournament in Las Vegas. This is much more serious than small, weekly Mortal Kombat matches. Overwatch is growing rapidly in professional, competitive gaming, and they have their own league.
As far as betting on esports in Las Vegas, it isn’t quite as simple. There have always been complications regarding whether or not esports betting is legal, and where. “To the best of my knowledge, no Nevada sportsbooks offer lines on eSports, possibly because regulators have yet to weigh in on such fixtures,” writes Chris Grove, of Legal Sports Report. But that doesn’t completely prevent people from betting on esports tournaments that are held in Las Vegas. Plenty of websites are already devoted to allowing individuals to bet on esports from anywhere, as well as informing fans on whether or not it is legal in their country or state.
The sheer amount of floor room, and the population of ready gamblers that Las Vegas has, we can see the city becoming a massive “esports Six Flags” of sorts that will make previous “video game arcades” look like antiques. Imagine an esports casino and hotel that has different rooms not unlike actual casinos. There would be an FPS room, RTS room, 1v1 fighting room with games like Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur, and even a racing room where you could bet on Mario Kart races. It sounds… glorious. And with VR just getting its start in gaming, there will no doubt eventually be a VR room.
Having a portion of Vegas that reflects the Golden Saucer, the town of casino-gaming-within-a-game would certainly make Final Fantasy VII fans happy, at least. Although, the crossover between block RPG nostalgia gaming and modern competitive gaming is probably less than I would hope. Oh well. I can take solace in knowing that one day I’ll be able to go to Vegas and gamble real money on my FPS skills and RTS skills, and not just my ability to lose 51% of the time gambling on the Roulette.
