Sports Resorts: Vegas' Next Big Export

Chris Grove is Arctos Operating Advisor and a globally recognized leader in sports betting and online gaming whose insights are regularly trusted by analysts, capital allocators, media outlets, publicly traded companies, and policymakers. His work has been cited by outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC, the Economist, ESPN, Forbes, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Grove began his career in gaming as a professional poker player before transitioning to a focus on industry-centric roles. He brings over two decades of gaming experience, including founding and senior executive roles at Catena Media, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, and Fans Unite. He is also a successful venture investor with a portfolio of dozens of innovative gaming startups and has served as a strategic advisor to several of the world’s leading betting brands, the largest private equity firms, and numerous Fortune 500 companies.

For decades, professional sports followed a simple rhythm. Teams played their games, fans filled the seats, and once the season ended, the stadium lights went off. But that model is changing. Today, an empty venue isn’t just idle – it’s a missed opportunity. Increasingly, teams aren’t just in the business of games. They’re in the business of destinations.

Enter the integrated sports resort: part stadium, part casino, part entertainment, and entirely built to keep fans engaged and spending all year long.

While much has been written about sports-adjacent real estate (see here, here, and here), we believe the less discussed – but equally as intriguing – opportunity is integrated resorts, or IRs. These developments pair stadiums and arenas with hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and most importantly casinos. Interest in sports IRs is growing. They can diversify a franchise’s revenue streams, offer more reasons to visit, and attract greater private investment. One major example: the Dallas Mavericks plans for a new arena inside a casino resort complex. It’s a bold move and one that could point the way forward.

This paper explores the rise of sports IRs, including how Las Vegas helped shape the model. It looks at the Mavericks’ project in detail and examines similar developments in cities like New York and overseas in places like Singapore and the Middle East. Our conclusion is simple: integrated sports resorts could reshape how teams and government think about stadiums. Any franchise planning a new venue – or trying to make better use of the one they have – should take note.

Las Vegas has long been a land of reinvention. The most seismic shift came in 1989. As visitor numbers sagged in the early 1980s (see Figure 1), the town needed a new approach.

The Mirage was not just another casino; it was a spectacle complete with a Polynesian-themed façade, a volcano, and performances by magicians working alongside Siberian tigers. Gambling remained, but the focus shifted to entertainment, fine dining, and experiences. The Mirage’s opening sparked a wave of new mega-resorts across the Strip. As a result, Las Vegas’s revenue shifted. In the 1990s, two-thirds of visitor spending came from gambling. Today, about two-thirds comes from non-gambling amenities like restaurants, shopping, and shows (see Figure 2). The city branded itself the “Entertainment Capital of the World.”

For decades, one thing Las Vegas lacked was a major professional sports team. The gaming industry’s dominance and sports leagues’ aversion to legal betting kept North American sports away.

That changed in 2017 when the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights became the city’s first major franchise. The NHL team debuted at the new T-Mobile Arena directly integrated into the Strip. While the Franchise did not build an IR themselves (their home T-Mobile Arena was a joint venture by MGM Resorts and AEG), they were effectively part of an entertainment district as their arena adjoined major casinos. Golden Knights games quickly became a Vegas spectacle. They featured glitzy pregame shows and raucous crowds full of tourists and locals. The strategy was clear: leverage Las Vegas’s tourism machine to support the team.

Others followed their arrival. The Raiders relocated from Oakland in 2020. The Raiders’ $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium was deliberately positioned across the I-15 freeway from the Mandalay Bay and Luxor casinos, making it easy for visitors to hop from the slot machines. Importantly, fans poured in from out of town. About two-thirds of Raiders attendees in 2022 were visitors from outside Las Vegas. The Raiders have among the highest average ticket price in the league. Not coincidentally, Las Vegas hosted the 2024 Super Bowl, a scenario unimaginable when the league shunned any open association with gambling.

Even the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces embraced the IR concept. The Aces play at the Michelob Ultra Arena, a 12,000-seat venue inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Fans walk through a casino floor to reach the basketball court. This unique arrangement (a legacy of the franchise’s prior life as a Vegas showcase team) means a night at the Aces can include dinner at a Mandalay Bay restaurant, a WNBA game, and post-game bets at the casino without ever leaving the property (see Figure 3). The success of the Aces (2022 and 2023 WNBA champions) has further validated that Vegas’s approach can work across different sports.

Several forces have converged to make sports IRs especially relevant now.

First, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports wagering. Since then 38 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized sports betting in some form. This rapid policy shift has moved gambling into the mainstream. It’s no longer taboo for leagues associate with betting – quite the opposite. Professional leagues and teams now routinely partner with sportsbook operators and television broadcasts discuss point spreads. This normalization has resulted in casinos and sportsbooks placed next to or within stadiums. Sports and gambling merging in the public eye has set the stage for physical spaces to reflect the same synergy.

Another mega trend powering the rise of sports IRs is the push for sports-adjacent entertainment districts. Before casinos entered the mix, team owners saw the value in developing mixed-use complexes – restaurants, bars, hotels, and retail that keep fans on-site before and after games. Projects like The Battery Atlanta (next to the Braves’ Truist Park) and Titletown District (beside Lambeau Field) have demonstrated that a well-crafted district can become a year-round economic hub and attract significant out-of-town spending (see Figure 4).

The facilities also double as attractive conference venues – an increasingly important and profitable segment of tourism.

But adding a casino amplifies the appeal.

Take for example the Oakland Athletics’s plan to relocate and build a $1.5 billion, 33,000-seat stadium on the famed Tropicana casino site. The owner of the Tropicana (Bally’s Corp.) has submitted plans to construct an IR around the baseball stadium on the 36-acre site. Renderings show hotel towers flanking the stadium’s outfield and a gaming floor, restaurants, and even a pool dayclub as part of the complex. Nevada’s legislature approved $380 million of public funding in 2023 on the premise that thousands of out-of-town fans will travel to Vegas for baseball just as they do for hockey and football.

In Queens, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has unveiled plans for a 50-acre “Metropolitan Park” entertainment district on the parking lots around Citi Field. The $8 billion proposal would feature a hotel, live music venue, restaurants, shops, and 25 acres of parkland. The centerpiece is a Vegas-style casino in partnership with Hard Rock. New York State’s decision to authorize downstate casino licenses made this possible, and Cohen is vying aggressively for one. While there are significant political hurdles (the land is technically public parkland, requiring legislative approval to develop), the project has gained key support and won crucial zoning approvals. The Mets’ plan exemplifies the use of IRs to amplify the economic footprint of stadiums making them catalysts for broader development.

Beyond development, IRs offer an alternative source of financing. The cost of building sports stadiums has grown. Many venues from the late 1990s and early 2000s are nearing obsolescence, triggering a fresh redevelopment cycle. New stadiums regularly exceed $1 billion, but public support remains ambivalent. Sports IRs offer an alternative: by embedding stadiums within casino, hotel, and retail developments, teams unlock private capital. Casino operators may help fund construction in exchange for gaming rights.

The sheer scale of an IR can also attract foreign direct investment, as overseas operators either develop sites themselves, or in partnership with local businesses. Year-round resort activity offsets the “dark days” of traditional venues, creating steadier cash flow and stronger debt coverage. The model shifts the cost burden from the public to private partners. Instead of debating stadium subsidies, cities can evaluate broader developments that promise tax revenue, tourism, and jobs. For franchise owners, developers, and officials alike, the integrated resort may be a more politically and financially feasible playbook.

For the gaming industry, sports IRs also offer a path into markets where standalone casinos face resistance. Bundling a casino with a franchise and stadium reframes the pitch from a gambling proposal to a broader development project. This framing is politically easier to sell. Lawmakers who reject pure gambling bills have shown openness when the casino is packaged with civic assets like jobs, tax revenue, and stadiums. These projects boost employment and public revenues and create a broader coalition of supporters. States like Texas and Georgia are now entertaining serious proposals. Moral objections and political infighting persist, but sports resorts have emerged as a trojan horse for U.S. casino expansion.

The most ambitious and instructive example of this emerging trend is unfolding in North Texas. The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, who are currently based in the Victory Park neighborhood near downtown, are exploring a plan to relocate to a new arena as part of a massive sports IR development. This initiative has taken shape rapidly, fueled by the new control owners of the franchise, the Adelson family of Las Vegas Sands casinos.

The plan centers on an expansive site in Irving, 15 minutes west of downtown. Sands purchased about 260 acres of land in 2023, a strategic crossroads a short drive from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Local officials have earmarked a 1,001-acre Planned Unit Development (PUD) in this area for high-intensity mixed-use projects, and early this year Irving’s Planning & Zoning Commission approved a zoning change to accommodate the resort vision. The red-outlined map below shows the development zone, with the proposed resort likely in sector “A” (pink) – directly on the old stadium grounds and adjacent parcels (see Figure 5).

The proposed IR would be a flagship destination. Plans call for a minimum of 1,750 hotel rooms – on par with Las Vegas Strip properties – along with extensive gaming space, if legalized. The expectation is that this arena would anchor the complex and become the new home of the Mavericks. The plans also call for restaurants, retail outlets, an indoor recreation center, an athletic training facility, and even a heliport for VIP access.

The partnership behind the project leverages complementary strengths. Mark Cuban has long sought to upgrade the Mavericks’ arena situation (their lease at American Airlines Center ends in 2031) but lacked a clear path in Dallas proper. The Adelson family, meanwhile, has expertise in developing mega-resorts like the Venetian and Marina Bay Sands, and has been actively lobbying to expand casino gaming into Texas. By teaming up, Cuban gets access to Sands’ real estate development muscle and capital, while Sands gets a way to enter a huge untapped market (Texas is by population the largest U.S. state without legal casinos).

Standing in the way is a significant hurdle: casino gambling is currently illegal in Texas. State law forbids full-fledged casino gaming, with only very limited exceptions and sports betting is also not yet legalized in Texas. Any IR that includes a casino would require a change in state law or the Texas Constitution. Las Vegas Sands, however, foresaw this challenge and has been methodically laying the groundwork to overcome it. In the 2023 legislative session, Sands employed dozens of lobbyists in Austin and got a resort casino legalization bill further than ever – it advanced out of committee to a House floor debate.

The Irving project’s strategy appears to be: “build the church for the revival.” By securing land and local zoning approvals now, the Mavericks and Sands can position the resort as a shovel-ready opportunity the moment Texas legalizes casinos. For now, the arena portion of the project could theoretically proceed without gambling legalization – building a new Mavericks arena and non-gaming amenities is permissible under current law.

Even in the planning stages, the proposed Irving resort-arena is being touted for its significant economic and financial impact potential. North Texas is one of the largest metro areas in the U.S. without a major casino, so local officials and business leaders have begun to imagine the upside of capturing gambling dollars that currently flow to Oklahoma, Las Vegas, or Louisiana.

Even without gaming, the mixed-use development would generate property tax on a now mostly vacant site, sales taxes from retail, and hotel occupancy taxes from the resort – benefitting city coffers. Land values around the development zone in Irving can be expected to rise in anticipation of new demand for offices, apartments, and services catering to resort visitors and employees. There is also the intangible but important effect of urban regeneration: the old Texas Stadium area has been fallow since the Cowboys left in 2008. A flagship project can catalyze broader redevelopment of the district.

The sports IR concept is not limited to the U.S. Around the globe, sports and gambling are converging in new ways, creating opportunities for similar developments. Las Vegas’s success has always been exported. First the casino resort model spread to Macau and Singapore, and now the sports resort model may follow.

Asia is already ahead of the curve. Singapore and Macau have long embraced the IR model. The Marina Bay Sands in Singapore now regularly hosts sports events alongside conventions and concerts. In Macau, basketball and boxing bouts take place just steps from the baccarat tables. These are, in practice if not in name, sports IRs.

Further afield, countries with big tourism ambitions and strict views on gambling are exploring loopholes. The Middle East, particularly, offers a curious case. In Saudi Arabia, billions have been spent on sports - from road bicycling to LIV Golf. Gambling remains banned, but some believe the Kingdom may eventually permit limited gaming zones.

The United Arab Emirates has already taken the plunge. In 2023, it quietly awarded its first casino license to Wynn Resorts for a new complex in Ras Al Khaimah. Branded a “gaming area,” the casino will anchor a resort near Abu Dhabi and Dubai – both of which already host major sporting events. The message: come for the tennis, stay for the slots (but don’t call it that).

Across the region, “Vegasization” is becoming a strategic asset, if not a public slogan. Wrapped in luxury and a carefully worded press release, the sports resort may yet become acceptable in the Middle East.

But while sports IRs may be catching on, they are not without significant hurdles. Turning a stadium into an entertainment anchor sounds smart on paper. In practice, it is complex, political, and precarious.

The first challenge is legal. Casino gambling remains illegal or heavily restricted in many states. Changing that often involves navigating years of legislative process, lobbying battles, and shifting public sentiment. In Texas, for instance, repeated attempts to legalize casinos or sports betting have failed despite high-profile backers and vocal support. In California, the situation is even messier: tribal gaming compacts and political alliances create a minefield for any new entrant. Even in states where online sports betting is permitted, building a full-scale casino resort can be a legal leap too far.

Beyond legality lies public opinion. Many residents may welcome a new stadium but draw the line at the idea of slot machines next door. Concerns range from traffic and noise to gambling addiction and crime. In Queens, plans to build a casino next to Citi Field were slowed by objections over land use and the character of the neighborhood. With billions of dollars at stake, conflicts over who controls development rights, tax incentives, and revenue sharing could create delays and uncertainty. In Chicago, community groups pushed back against a proposed downtown casino despite the promise of jobs and tax revenue. Politicians, ever alert to voter moods, often hesitate unless the benefits are obvious and widely shared.

Then there is the market itself. Las Vegas works because it has global draw and nonstop foot traffic. Not every city can say the same. A second-tier sports market might struggle to fill hotel rooms outside of game days. Even in Vegas, casino operators worry about saturation. As one executive wryly observed, “You do not need to come to Las Vegas to gamble anymore.” Mobile betting apps and regional casinos have made sure of that.

These projects are not cheap either. Combining a stadium with a resort means higher costs and more moving parts. If one component falters, such as a delay in casino licensing, the whole development can suffer. Worse still, replacing or upgrading a stadium that is embedded in a resort is not easy. You cannot simply tear down the arena without disrupting the entire ecosystem around it.

There is also the challenge of keeping the core audience happy. Local fans might be excited about new restaurants or hotel suites, but they also want to feel like the stadium still belongs to them. If prices soar or the atmosphere changes too much, some may feel pushed out by tourists who are more interested in roulette wheels. In theory, sports IRs are a compelling evolution of stadium real estate. In practice, it is a delicate balancing act that requires political skill, financial discipline, and a bit of good timing. If done well, it could reshape how cities think about sports. If done poorly, it could be a cautionary tale.

The rise of integrated sports resorts marks a profound shift in how sports franchises, casinos, and real estate developers think about entertainment. The model is not just a way to build new stadiums. It represents a differentiated approach to monetizing sports fandom. With Las Vegas leading the charge and cities like Dallas potentially following, the concept is poised to reshape the global sports and hospitality landscape. However, its long-term success will depend on how well stakeholders navigate regulatory hurdles, political challenges, and shifting consumer trends.

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