Florida Seminoles Strike Surprise Agreement With Former Rivals

Who said Native American tribes had it easy with sports betting? That may be true in a state like California, but it couldn’t have been further from the case for the Seminoles Tribes. They had to fight tooth and nail to earn the right to offer sports betting in Florida — almost three years.

That fight is over now though and the Seminoles, through the Hard Rock casinos and app, are offering betting across the state — and only them, as they have a monopoly on the industry. But here’s the interesting thing: they just signed an interesting agreement with the group that challenged that monopoly for those three years. Keep reading and we’ll tell you all about it.

Seminole and West Flagler End Dispute

West Flagler and Associates was the opposing group we mentioned. They sued the Seminoles into oblivion over its exclusive sports betting rights inside the state. The lawsuit was eventually settled by the Supreme Court over the summer (more on that soon). You’d think after that — and endless money spent on legal fees for both sides — they’d hate each other, right? Nope.

At the end of October, a press release dropped announcing a compromise between the two. For one, they both agreed to end any legal disputes for the foreseeable future. The press release said they’d “refrain from engaging in any future litigation with respect to the Seminole tribe’s gaming operations.”

Not only that, but the two are now in cahoots with each other. Seminoles will now accept Jai Alai wagering via the Hard Rock Bet app. This game is fostered by West Flagler. Hard Rock Bet will begin offering jai alai betting as soon as the first quarter of 2025, per terms of the deal.

“This is truly a win-win agreement for the Seminole Tribe and West Flagler,” Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen said in a news release. “This agreement establishes a relationship of collaboration among the Seminole Tribe and West Flagler in the State of Florida. Rather than engaging in years of additional litigation, this agreement will allow the parties to work together to promote Jai Alai, which has played an important role in Florida’s gaming landscape for nearly 100 years.”

Seminole vs. West Flagler Rivalry Explained

We covered this back-and-forth battle for months if not years. It was explosive — which is why we’re left floored that this agreement even happened. Let’s quickly remember the bad blood between the two.

It all started in 2021. This is the year the Seminoles signed a 30-year compact with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to have the sole right to offer legal betting in the state. The deal allowed the tribe to offer sports betting, but also craps and roulette at tribal casinos. The deal cost the tribe $20 billion in total.

Of course, West Flagler Associates was not happy with this deal. You see, West Flagler owns several gaming, sports, and entertainment facilities of their own, including World Jai Alai League operations based in Coral Gables and Bonita Springs Poker Room near Fort Myers. They didn’t want to be cut out of this business. So what did they do? Sue the bastards, of course.

The defending argument was that the compact gave the Seminoles a sports betting monopoly (illegal due to antitrust laws) and that the U.S. Department of Interior wrongly approved the compact even though it violates the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of requiring gambling on tribal lands. The latter focused on Seminole having “servers” across the state which allowed them to take in online bets — even when away from tribal property.

This litigation forced Hard Rock to withdraw from betting for most of the three years. Eventually, the case ended up in front of the Supreme Court, who denied West Flagler’s petition for write of certiorari. With that, the Seminoles’ monopoly was preserved and led to where we are today.

Seminoles Want More Partnerships

If you look at most states where only tribes offer gambling (e.g. betting in California or Oklahoma), the Indians mostly keep to themselves. By that, we mean they protect their monopolies and don’t allow much third-party involvement. However, Seminoles appear to be taking a different approach.

Even before this new agreement, the tribe signaled an intent to do business with non-Native companies. The chairman of Hard Rock International, Jim Allen, said so in an October interview with CNBC.

“We do recognize that long-term, some type of strategic relationship with some of the brands that really have marquee value could be helpful to both of us, and we are receptive to those conversations,” he said in the interview.

You won’t believe which two companies he specifically called out though — DraftKings and FanDuel. Of course, both are leaders of the legal sports betting scene across the country. If allowed in the state, surely, they’d gobble up market share in Florida. But Allen says the door is open for some type of collaboration.

Normally, we’d chalk it up as pure lip service. But after the West Flagler, we’re not so sure. If the Seminoles could mend that fence, then they could do the same with DraftKings and FanDuel, who also spent money to stop the tribe’s monopoly way back then. Nothing would surprise us at this point.