Starting in early 2018, the Luxor Hotel will be home to the very first e-sports arena on the Las Vegas Strip. The joint venture between Allied Esports, Esports Arena, and Luxor-owner MGM Resorts International will see an existing 30,000-square-foot nightclub transformed into a multi-level e-sports venue. It will be equipped with all the staples of a standard sports arena plus an LED video wall, professional streaming video production studios, and daily gaming stations for attendees.
“We have very ambitious expansion plans over the next two years, and when we realized that a location at Luxor was possible, we jumped at the opportunity to develop our flagship here,” Allied Esports CEO Jud Hannigan said in a statement. “Just as Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Wembley Stadium are considered their sports’ most aspirational venues by players and fans alike, Esports Arena Las Vegas will be the iconic destination in e-sports and complement the city’s incredible appeal.” For context, Allied Esports is essentially an entertainment company and tournament organizer, while Esports Arena is a venue owner and broadcaster. The two partnered last year to start building out a combined network of gaming venues that could host competitions.
A presence in Las Vegas is yet another big step forward for e-sports in North America, which is slowly but surely catching up to Asia in realizing the potential and popularity of competitive gaming. Allied Esports is already working with Esports Arena to build out a similar venue in Oakland, California, to add to existing properties in Santa Ana, California, and Beijing. Allied Esports also runs a touring “mobile” arena in Europe that travels to various game conferences throughout the year.
The goal down the line is to turn Esports Arena into a global brand with a big footprint in the US. However, given the lucrative Las Vegas real estate, Hannigan says they’re looking into co-branding the Luxor location, so naming rights may be up for sale to interested corporate sponsors.
