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The Seminole’s Hard Rock has had the right to offer sports betting in Florida since 2021 when it signed a 30-year compact with Governor Ron DeSantis and the the Sunshine State. However, it hasn’t gotten the opportunity to fully do it thanks to a litany of lawsuits.
In December 2021 for example, the Seminole Tribe had to suspend its sports gambling operation as a result of an appellate court ruling that rejected a request to continue online sports betting.
Two years later around the same timeframe — in the thick of the highly lucrative NFL betting season — The Florida Supreme Court decided it would NOT force Hard Rock Bet offline in the state amid a separate lawsuit. In 2024, Hard Rock offered Super Bowl betting for the first time despite having the rights for three NFL seasons.
You see, these lawsuits have persisted since they got started. Most of the litigation has challenged the tribe’s “hub and spoke” system. By connecting to different servers throughout the state, in their native lands, the Hard Rock bet app is able to take in online wagers from anywhere in the state.
This flies in the face of every U.S. state with tribal casinos. Elsewhere, these tribes can only offer betting directly on their native land. Try using their mobile apps in non-native land and it doesn’t work — except in Florida. Honestly, it’s a genius solution and more evidence the Seminoles are way, way more business-savvy than your typical tribe. That makes sense, right? They operate a global brand like Hard Rock and so do ambitiously.
All this is to say, on the cusp of the 2024 NFL season starting, the Hard Rock sportsbooks and mobile app will have its first year completely free of legal worries and offline endorsements. That’s because they beat their latest legal battle emphatically. It’s clear skies from here on out, per the Supreme Court!
Hard Rock Gets Busy Building Post Court Case
In case you don’t read our site often — which you totally should to stay current on all gambling news — then you might’ve missed a game-changing decision made in June. The U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court there is in America, refused to hear one of the cases that questioned the Seminole Tribe’s exclusive rights to online sports betting via that “hub and spoke” model we mentioned.
When the Supreme Court sets such a precedent, all the lawsuits — and any future ones — go away with a snap of a finger. It’s really tough to change their mind so further litigation is a waste of time and money. So that’s what we mean when we say Hard Rock is finally free to operate its business in a massive market like Florida (due to the courts, they’ll now have a monopoly until 2051).
Now it’s time to grow, and boy, is that what Hard Rock is doing now. The first domino that fell was in Illinois. They’re opening a brand-spanking-new location in Rockford — a small city less than an hour away from Chicago. This casino also gets them a license to offer mobile app betting via the Hard Rock Bet platform.
Illinois is now up to nine licenses for apps. Hard Rock bet will have to contend with stiff competition, plus higher than usual taxes from the state, but Illinois is a must-be-in marketplace. The money is too good. Matter of fact, Illinois’ sportsbooks handle of $36.9 billion since launching in March 2020 is the third-most in the post-PASPA era. You can understand why the tribe wants a piece of that pie.
Speaking of a piece of the pie, Hard Rock isn’t yet in the state of Nevada — the mecca of gambling to this day despite legalization in the U.S. being so common. However, that absence is only going to be for another three years or so.
That’s because construction has begun on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Vegas. A few years ago, the Seminoles bought The Mirage Las Vegas, an old-school casino on the heart of the Strip. Mirage closed down over the summer to make way for this rebranded casino on the same property.
It’s not a tear-down project, but a remodel one. The plan is to add 600 rooms on top of the 3,044 that already existed. And it wouldn’t be Hard Rock without a new guitar-shaped hotel building. The goal is to have everything finished and re-launched by 2027. When complete, it’ll be a marvel amongst other marvels on the Strip.
As you can see, Hard Rock isn’t resting on their laurels just because they have Florida betting on lock until 2051. No, no, not in the slightest. The Seminoles are staying as ambitious as ever by getting into Illinois and Nevada — two top-5 sports betting markets in their own right.
We personally can’t wait to continue to follow this story. Hard Rock certainly has some catching up to do with big-name operators (e.g. BetMGM or DraftKings) and even trusted offshore sportsbooks, but they have the ambition and deep pockets to make some ground in the next few years.
See below the top sportsbooks where you can wager online and choose the best one for you:
