#326 - Ed Pitoniak - CEO @ VICI Properties ($VICI) - From the Slopes to Leading a $50B Gaming, Hospitality, and Entertainment REIT

Edward Pitoniak is the founding Chief Executive Officer of VICI Properties, one of America’s largest real estate investment trusts and the first American REIT to go from IPO to S&P 500 inclusion in less than 5 years. Since its inception in late 2017, VICI has carried out over $30 billion of transactions. VICI is the largest real estate owner on the Las Vegas Strip, the most economically productive street in America, where VICI owns such iconic assets as The Venetian, Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay. VICI also has partnerships with Cabot Destinations, Canyon Ranch, Great Wolf Resorts, and other leading experiential operators.  On this episode, Chris and Ed discuss: - Maximizing the hospitality experience in Vegas - The story of building VICI - Investing in Canyon Ranch - The Inevitable Gaming Future in Texas We'd appreciate you filling out our audience survey, so we can continuously work on providing relevant content to our listeners.  https://www.thefortpod.com/survey Links Vici Ed on LinkedIn Topics (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:04) - Ed’s career (00:07:42) - How career “obsession” has changed since the 1970’s (00:18:05) - The history of the ski industry (00:28:10) - Maximizing the 24-hour experience of Las Vegas (00:30:35) - Are people craving experience more than ever? (00:35:06) - The Las Vegas Sphere (00:39:33) - Risk-taking  (00:42:06) - VICI (00:47:57) - What makes a great purchase for Vici? (00:51:50) - How did you achieve the highest gross margins of any publicly traded company? (00:54:17) - Who else does what you do? (00:55:36) - Project ShitCo (00:56:48) - Canyon Ranch  (01:04:37) - The Fontainblue Las Vegas (01:06:45) - The impact of influencer marketing on in-person casino experiences (01:09:19) - The future of Texas & Gaming Support our Sponsors Better Pitch: https://bit.ly/42d9L0I Fort Capital: https://bit.ly/FortCapital Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Chris on Social Media: Twitter: https://bit.ly/3BYIjcH LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd   Watch The Fort on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://bit.ly/43SOvys Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO  The FORT is produced by Johnny Podcasts