INTERVIEW WITH ARI FOX: “I am very pleased with the CEC Las Vegas 2019”

Are you pleased with the results of the CEC Las Vegas 2019?

I am very pleased with the CEC Las Vegas 2019. The moderating of our keynote of J. Moses and Johnathan "Fatality" Wendel, which I led was informative and a great boost to what we are trying to do at the CEC. Seth Schorr, CEO of the Downtown Grand, called it a "movement". It really is a movement and a development of a new entertainment and eco-system of two industries coming together to be productive and create a need for a younger generation to have fun both online and at brick and mortar casinos. There are many people in the casino industry that do not believe in esports or video game entertainment but you have to give the people what they want and they want video games and esports, because this is what they grew up on! 

What was the total attendance?

The total attendance was about 200 people but that has doubled since last year and we are positive that it will double again every year.

Was there any particular speaker you would like to highlight? 

As I mentioned above we had J. Moses from Take 2 Media but we also had the president from Atari games and the president from Tiato games (makers of space invaders and other games) send us videotaped greetings for the keynote. They will be more of an active player in next years CEC.

What kind of messages did you get from the attendance after the event?

After the event I not only got multiple personal notes from many of the delegates that were there thanking me for the in depth education and amazing panel talks, but also loving the entire thing and making many connections to build their business' during our amazing mixer moments throughout the conference.

When can we expect a new conference?

The next CEC will be after labor day weekend at the Luxor casino September 9th and 10th of 2020. The bottom line is that esports and the video gaming entertainment desire by the next generation will not be going away anytime soon. This year over 5 billion dollars will be wagered on esport tournaments through offshore betting sites. Esports is where online gaming and sports betting was 20 years ago. If you ignore these numbers now and don't get in the "game" or try to learn about it your business will be irrelevant. Adapt or Die is the issue of today and that means Technological Hospitality too which we will be focusing on more next year. So the casino industry needs to play catch up and the CEC is giving the casino industry that edge to compete.