Florida’s Hard Rock Bet Eyes Expansion Beyond State Lines

The Hard Rock Bet is the only option for Florida sports betting. This monopoly was upheld by the United States Supreme Court over the summer too. This market alone makes the Hard Rock mobile betting app, and the accompanying sportsbooks, a huge player in the whole industry since the state of Florida is so, so populated and affluent.

However, don’t think the Seminoles Tribe, which owns the Hard Rock brand, is resting on its laurels because of this monopoly. In the past week, they’ve openly made moves to expand their sports betting empire beyond what they already have. Let’s take you into the latest news:

Hard Rock Bet Signs With Kambi

Once upon a time, Kambi was a leader of the legal sports betting space. Most famously, they provided the technology that platformed these sportsbooks. DraftKings was their top customer until the sports betting giant built out their own proprietary platform and kicked Kambi to the curb.

Kambi was left to scramble and diversify its product line. Enter Kambi’s Odds Feed+ feature. As the name sounds, this is Kambi’s betting line yeah stack, which they sell to different operators, allowing the company to handle all line creation. Welp, the Hard Rock Bet are their newest customers.

The two announced the deal in the middle of October. Along with setting odds for Hard Rock Bet, Kambi will also integrate its AI trading division, Tzeract, into the betting feed.

“The addition of Kambi’s odds feed will provide us with a greater range of betting options and more flexibility, while still allowing our team to maintain control of our core product,” Hard Rock Digital president Matt Primeaux said. “We’re excited to partner with Kambi and create more unique experiences for players on our top-rated platform.”

This deal does NOT mean Kambi will control the Hard Rock Bet platform. As the above quote says, Hard Rock will remain in control of the product side of things. This is merely about outsourcing what bets end up on the platform, and at what prices.

It’s a win-win for both sides. Hard Rock benefits from more betting options, while Kambi diversified its product line away from what it’s been known for inside the industry.

“This Odds Feed+ partnership with Hard Rock Digital represents another important step forward for Kambi,” said Kambi CEO Werner Becher in a joint statement. “The deal builds on the strategy Kambi set out 18 months ago to leverage our position as the world’s leading sportsbook provider with the offer of standalone products that uniquely benefit from our turnkey sportsbook.

Hard Rock Enters New States

Here’s a giant misconception that bettors have: Hard Rock is only in Florida. No, no, that’s not couldn’t be further from the truth. While Florida might be its biggest market due to the monopoly they maintain, Hard Rock is in several legal sports betting states. Some of them, they barely entered into.

In late August, Hard Rock Bet broke into Illinois. It did so by opening a massive casino in Rockford, Illinois — not too far from Chicago. Since the state allows mobile registration for sports betting, that means Hars Rock Bet can be used anywhere in the state — not just in casino premises like most tribal properties.

Hard Rock Bet is also live in Arizona, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee. This brings up its sports betting footprint to eight different states.

There are 38 states with legal sports betting of some kind so there’s room to grow for Hard Rock Bet. However, many of those states have similar monopolies in betting — either single operators or native casinos that fall those states home. Nonetheless, we do expect Hard Rock to continue branching out in states where mobile betting is fully allowed.

Possible DraftKings and FanDuel Partnership?

Now this news item even shocked us. But in an interview with CNBC during the G2E Conference earlier this month, the chairman of Hard Rock International, Jim Allen, tossed out the idea of working hand-in-hand with DraftKings and FanDuel.

“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.

This is shocking for two reasons. One, the two sides haven’t always been friendly with one another. Both DraftKings and FanDuel poured money into a failed mobile sports betting bill on Florida’s ballot in 2021. At the time, a Seminole spokesperson called the bill a “political Hail Mary.” He would be right on that regard. Later that year, the tribe signed its exclusive agreement with the state to offer sports betting for 30 years.

Secondly, it doesn’t make sense from a business perspective. While the tribe’s compact with the state does allow them to partner with other brands, why would they? It would eat up into their revenue big time.

This is why our gut says Allen was just yapping. He doesn’t really mean what he says about a possible partnership. We seriously doubt he’d have a job if he let the tribe’s “golden goose egg” in Florida be compromised.