Christopher LaPorte is a Street Fighter man. “It will forever and always be my game,” says the former owner of Insert Coin(s), the Fremont East “videolounge gamebar” that was, for too short a time, the best place to get your drink and your Street Fighter on at the same time. Now, LaPorte envisions a time when video gamers play on the Strip—and other people will be betting on their ability to deliver a well-timed Hadouken. He believes competitive video gaming—eSports—could be what’s needed to get new blood into Strip casinos.
“This is a huge, misunderstood market,” LaPorte says. He calls off some figures: The American video-game industry made $23 billion in profits last year; the average age of gamers is 35; nearly half of gamers are women. Then he shows me a video from last July’s EVO Championship Series at Mandalay Bay Events Center: “That’s 12,000 people, there to watch somebody play Street Fighter.”
LaPorte notes that eSports prize pools are increasing, too. “Halo just did a $2.5 million-dollar prize pool. Call of Duty just did a $2 million-dollar prize pool. EA Sports just announced $1.3 million for FIFA 17.”
The money is only part of the reason LaPorte—whose Quantum Gaming Concepts develops video game-inspired slot machines—is evangelizing for Vegas as an eSports destination. There’s real spectacle to eSports, he says—and if Strip casinos don’t embrace it, someone else will. “Atlantic City has already started pushing skill-based gaming,” he says. “Why not have global events where [you] have your grand finals in Las Vegas? We got more than enough arenas to fill.”
LaPorte is scheduled to speak at the Naruscope “eSports and Casino Resorts” conference in October at SLS, a two-day event that will bring together a number of eSports’ heavy hitters. In the meantime, he’ll keep fighting in the streets.
“My mission is to validate this,” he says. “When I see [sports radio’s] Colin Cowherd mock the gamer community … These guys are putting in hours upon hours to become really good, and you know what? F*ck it. Let them get paid to play video games.”