The third edition of the Sports, Entertainment and Innovation Conference (SEICon), which is co- hosted by the University of Las Vegas, Nevada and Syracuse University, brought together a broad cross-section of the sports and entertainment industries at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from July 7 to 9, 2026.
over 100 speakers drawn from more than 40 sectors filled the conference
More than 1,000 executive attendees and over 100 speakers drawn from more than 40 sectors filled the conference across three days, with conversations ranging across technology, media, investment, hospitality, research, and the future of professional sport. Now that the conference has concluded, it is worth asking what the wider industry can take away from it.
SEICon has grown quickly since its debut in 2024, and the third edition demonstrated that its model of connecting academic research with industry practice has found a genuine audience.
The History of SEICon
The conference launched in 2024, when its first edition was held at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. It was established as a joint initiative between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Sports Innovation Institute and the David B. Falk College of Sport at Syracuse University, with USA Today Sports serving as the presenting sponsor.
Those two universities brought distinct and complementary strengths to the project: UNLV’s grounding in sports science, hospitality management, and applied research, and Syracuse’s depth in sport analytics and sport management.
a program that spans technology, leadership, business, research
From that starting point, SEICon expanded rapidly. By its third edition, the conference had grown from a first gathering to an event attracting more than 1,000 executives and exceeding 100 speakers across a program that spans technology, leadership, business, research, and the longer-term direction of sports and entertainment.
The scale of that growth in a short window reflects how much demand existed for a conference that treats sports and entertainment as genuinely interconnected with broader questions of innovation, investment, and social change.
Why Las Vegas Matters
The decision to build SEICon in Las Vegas was not simply a matter of convenience. The city has undergone a real transformation in its sporting identity over the past decade. The arrival of the NHL’s Golden Knights, the NFL’s Raiders, and the WNBA’s Aces gave Las Vegas its first professional franchises.
Major events followed, including the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Super Bowl, and a consistent run of major UFC cards. What had long been understood primarily as a gaming destination became, in a relatively short time, a credible hub for live sport and mainstream entertainment.
That shift is directly relevant to what SEICon is trying to do. A conference focused on the intersection of sports, entertainment, technology, and innovation benefits from being held in a city where those sectors are visibly in conversation with each other.
In Las Vegas, a gambling product, a hospitality strategy, and a live sporting event often affect each other in real time. The Bellagio, which hosted SEICon III, represents exactly that blend: luxury hospitality operating alongside entertainment and gaming within the same physical space.
bridging academic work and industry application in ways that are specific to Las Vegas’s economy
UNLV’s role in this setting adds another layer. The university’s Sports Innovation Institute functions as a nationally recognized research and development hub connecting sports science to business practice. The William F. Harrah College of Hospitality focuses on gaming management and hospitality education, and the university has developed a track record of bridging academic work and industry application in ways that are specific to Las Vegas’s economy.
What We Can Learn From SEICon III
The most significant thing SEICon III demonstrated is the value of putting academic researchers and industry practitioners in the same room and placing that collaboration at the heart of the event. A conference that creates direct contact between those who generate findings and those who can act on them compresses that timeline meaningfully.
This matters most in sectors where the data environment is changing quickly. Sports betting provides one clear example. The behavioral economics of gambling, the pricing dynamics of sports markets, the effects of new product categories on consumption patterns: these are all areas where academic work is producing useful insights that the industry continues to translate into practice. SEICon’s model of co-hosting with two research universities means that work gets presented to and discussed with practitioners from the industries it is meant to inform.
The conference also reflected how thoroughly the traditional boundaries between sectors have blurred. Sports, media, gaming, hospitality, investment, and entertainment are not parallel industries that occasionally touch; they’re entangled.
Cross-industry networking was another practical output. A conference that brings together broadcasters, investors, academics, venue operators, and tech entrepreneurs creates the conditions for connections that would not form through sector-specific events alone. For gambling-adjacent businesses, proximity to the sports and entertainment ecosystem at that level of seniority has direct commercial relevance.
Notable Speakers
Jay Vickers, the Director of the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute and the Visionary and Co-Founder of SEICon, has been central to the conference since before its inception. He identified the gap that SEICon was designed to fill: Las Vegas had become a major sports destination without having a conference that brought together the wider ecosystem of sports, entertainment, and innovation operating in and around the city.
SEICon III brings together the people and ideas shaping the future of sports, entertainment, and innovation”
He recently told us, “SEICon III brings together the people and ideas shaping the future of sports, entertainment, and innovation—right here in the global epicenter of live experiences, Las Vegas. Innovation happens when diverse perspectives come together. SEI*Con creates the environment where those conversations can turn into action.”
Dr. Chris Cain, the Executive Director of Global Sport Hospitality Research at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, also spoke at the conference and brought the perspective of someone working at the intersection of academic research and the hospitality sector. He is a member of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America and has been recognized by the PGA for work connecting academic thinking to the practice of golf.
Several academics from Syracuse University also spoke at the conference. Rodney Paul, the Director of Sport Analytics at Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport, has presented research at national and international conferences covering sports economics and gambling markets. His work has appeared in The Journal of Sports Economics and the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. His presence at SEICon reinforced the direct connection between sports analytics scholarship and the innovation agenda the conference pursues.
Hamid Ekbia, a professor at Syracuse University and the Director of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute, addressed themes around technology and its social dimensions. He recently told us, “I’m excited to have been part of SEICon since its inception in 2024 and to work with Falk colleagues, especially Prof. Paul, on topics of mutual interest such as sports betting. I work on the social philosophy and political economy of AI, and SEICon has provided me with a great space to interact with people in academia, sports, and entertainment on issues that are at the forefront of current AI applications. I find their ideas and insights refreshing, and I also hope that they also find my thoughts useful.”
His collaboration with Paul on research into digital sports markets, including a study examining pricing behavior in NFT-based fantasy soccer, sits at the edge of where traditional gambling research and newer digital product categories overlap.
This research was also presented recently at the 19th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking, another conference held at the Bellagio. The paper, titled “Price in the Player? Testing Performance-Based Mispricing in NFT Fantasy Sports Markets”, found that market prices for digital player cards were being distorted by short-term performance trends rather than reflecting stable long-term value, a pattern familiar to anyone who studies bettor behavior in conventional sports wagering markets.
Leigh Steinberg, Greg Oden, Kate Eckman, and Bonnie-Jill Laflin were also among those who took part
The broader speaker lineup extended across organizations, including the Las Vegas A’s, Bowl Season, the UFC, The IX Sports, and Stathletes. Leigh Steinberg, Greg Oden, Kate Eckman, and Bonnie-Jill Laflin were also among those who took part, reflecting the range the conference aims to capture across sports business, media, and entertainment.
What SEICon III Signals for the Industry
The Sports, Entertainment and Innovation Conference’s third edition confirmed something that its first two editions suggested: there is a durable audience for a gathering that balances academic research with meaningful networking opportunities. The co-hosting model with UNLV and Syracuse gives SEICon a research floor that distinguishes it from industry conferences that simply aggregate practitioners.
For the gambling industry specifically, the presence of researchers working on behavioral economics, sports market pricing, and digital asset dynamics is a signal that these questions are being studied rigorously.
The growth trajectory from 2024 to 2026, in both scale and programming depth, suggests the model is working. Based on what SEICon III produced, it’s safe to say that future editions will be able to maintain that intellectual seriousness as the conference grows further.
