Belong Gaming Centers opened its first location in Houston, Texas.

Belong Gaming Arenas opens 1st U.S. esports gaming center in Houston

Vindex‘s Belong Gaming Arenas is opening its first U.S. location in Houston, Texas, as part of a plan to expand its chain of local esports gaming centers as the pandemic eases.

Many retailers have been stung in the pandemic as they paid high rents but were forced to close. Now many countries are starting to reopen, and Belong Gaming Arenas and its parent Vindex feel like the time is right to create the new locations in the U.S., said CEO Mike Sepso in an interview with GamesBeat. He anticipates hundreds of locations opening in the U.S.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.