While casinos around the country—and in Atlantic City—struggle to attract millennials, one former casino in the resort is planning to open a major entertainment complex aimed squarely at them.
Showboat Atlantic City—which no longer offers casino gaming—announced it will open the Atlantic City Fan Expo on Memorial Day Weekend. The 150,000- square-foot facility will feature experience-based entertainment such as eSport competitions, board games, video games, cosplay and anime, along with educational seminars.
The project is run by Venturis Partners, an Indiana-based company, and will be open every weekend during the summer, according to a press release from Meet AC, the city’s marketing arm.
Showboat owner Bart Blatstein said the Expo is designed to both appeal to millennials and help Atlantic City continue to grow non-gambling attractions.
“Gamers and eSports is the largest sport in the world,” he told the Press of Atlantic City. “It crosses all lines—male, female, all languages and backgrounds.”
Blatstein told the paper he has been researching the idea of a gamer-focused project and has travelled to South Korea and Japan to learn more about the industry.
Also planned is a sandlot beer garden featuring live music, movies and family entertainment, according to the release. The Showboat’s former House of Blues theater will become a 3,000-person arena for eSports tournaments
“We wanted to create the most perfect shore experience we could—some place we would want to spend all our time and some place our children would want to spend all their time,” Derek Pew, a partner in Venturis Partners said in the press statement.
The announcement of the eSports facility comes after Caesars Entertainment recently held the largest eSports event ever in the resort. That event offered a $70,000 top prize in the Gears Pro Circuit Atlantic City Open. At its height, it’s estimated that 40,000 viewers watched the contest live or online.
The event was part of a busy early spring weekend in the resort, which also included a well-attended beer festival and the Garden State Film festival. Meet AC estimated the economic impact of the weekend to be over $3.1 million.
