Events G2E LAS VEGAS IAGA Conference Sessions
working with Fifth Street Gaming. Together, his and their teams, created the first of many new gaming experiences, which started with their industry-first video game eContests where amateur players compete for a fixed cash prize.
Among the planned eContest genres to be tackled in the schedule Sam and his team devised and successfully implemented for the Grand were First Person Shooters like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Fighting Games: Super Smash Brothers and Mortal Kombat X, MOBAs like League of Legends & DOTA2 among several more. Sam is in discussions with several Las Vegas Strip-based operators and properties as well as the UNLV International Gaming Institute and Hospitality Lab to assist each to innovate and elevate the US economy by building the future of eSports, utilising highly efficient technology development, marketing, and integrated systems to implement the techniques necessary to introduce and create this segment of the gaming/tourism industries to Nevada.
TACKLING ESPORTS Sam McMullen and his colleagues have both the
established relationships needed to speak to publishers and the technical expertise to ask the right questions. Both the publishers and the eSports teams (many publishers run their own teams) currently set their own standards, effectively policing each individual game, such as League of Legends or CS:GO for example. Te Nevada Gaming Control Board wants change in the form of a minimum set of standards; light enough of touch as to not require a gaming laboratory to start delving into the game’s code, but robust enough to slowdown and grind to a halt the escalating number of scandals hitting eSports wagering right now.
McMullen and his team have been asked to act as an intermediary between the publishers/event organisers and the Gaming Control Board in Nevada. Te goal is to create an eSports Commission, with an oversight
body that will enforce the rules and build security into the system without seeking to affect creativity (no small task). In his favour is the fact that McMullen is looking to achieve this from within the industry - not without. He’s both a self-confessed gamer though to his core and a military-grade software security professional. Where security is a balance between accessibility and convenience on one side and protection on the other, McMullen is tasked with navigating a path between integrity and security, and needs of the industry to be creative and innovative.
Nevada has a history of upholding gambling integrity and it’s an obvious move for the Gaming Control Board to seek to set a benchmark for eSports. Up to this point, publishers have sought to police themselves, but there’s a gulf between scrutiny in the video game industry and that imposed on dedicated gambling products and services. “We’ve been asked to sit somewhere in the middle - to start the conversation,” describes Sam McMullen of his conversations with the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
“Video games were not created to be gambling products, they encompass all levels of play, from people who play purely for fun, to full-time salaried and sponsored professionals. However, the professional side of eSports, the side that people bet upon, has to be managed without taking away all the fun factors that make video games enjoyable for everyone. Tat’s the balance we need to find.”
Te issue for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and for every regulatory gaming body around the world, is where do you draw the line? Once you step into the breach, how far should controls be exerted, how heavy-handed should the controls be enforced, and do you include the relatively few eSports providers at present, or encompass every gaming publisher?
A SPIRALING MARKETPLACE McMullen believes that by 2017 there could be as
many as 2,000 games in the eSports sector and 3,500 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM P67
Nevada has a history of
upholding gambling integrity and it’s an obvious move for
the Gaming Control Board to seek to set a benchmark for eSports. Up to this point,
publishers have sought to police themselves, but there’s a gulf between
scrutiny in the video game industry and that imposed on dedicated gambling products and services.
G2E IAGA Panel Session 10:00-11:00, September 26, 2016
Evolving Ways to Play With the increased attention to eSports, sports betting and skill- based gaming in the U.S., this session will compare the domestic emerging games to those in the U.K. and other international jurisdictions.
l Gain insight into the size, scope and nature of the global market
l Explore existing, pending and potential legal and regulatory issues
l Discuss recent legislative and regulatory activity
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