Andrew Weilgus
ATLANTIC CITY The first Casino Esports Conference on the East Coast will be held at Stockton University's Atlantic City campus Oct. 18-19, and feature a ribbon cutting of the new Esports Innovation Center at Stockton. The conference was created to help bring new business to southern New Jersey.
I think South Jersey needs esports and esports needs South Jersey, said Ari Fox, the producer and CEO of the CEC. It's an issue of how do you build that infrastructure. You start on the business-to-business side by educating entertainment venues and places where people congregate to enjoy competition.
The innovation center, developed in partnership with the NJ Economic Development Authority, is located in the university's Residential Complex. The non-profit was set up at Stockton to promote esports in South Jersey and Atlantic City, the center's Executive Director Andrew Weilgus said.
We want to help define and craft a casino strategy where they can take advantage of this growing boom of esports, both with events that come into Atlantic City, as well as potential wagering opportunities, Weilgus said. Those opportunities could be people betting on professional esports, or on a peer-to-peer model where they can offer an experience-based platform, like playing Madden (the football video game).
In addition to how the casinos can get involved with the industry, the conference will also touch on competitive esports at the collegiate and high school level and what future new businesses could evolve from professional level esports. There will also be panel discussions on the future of esports in Atlantic City and jobs that are available in esports besides just playing games.
At least 24 experts are scheduled to speak in the Fannie Lou Hamer Room in the John F. Scarpa Academic Center. Among those are Weilgus; Anthony Gaud, of the Gaud-Hammer Gaming Group and the chair of the Esports Trade Association; and keynote speaker Tim Sullivan, the chief executive officer of the NJEDA. For more information, go to the CEC website.
The ribbon-cutting for the Esports Innovation Center will be held 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, Oct 18 at the center, 3705 Boardwalk. For more information, go to the EIC website.
