Online sports betting is live for all residents in Florida after Hard Rock Bet unexpectedly launched on Tuesday afternoon.
Online sports betting is now live for all residents in Florida, after Hard Rock Bet unexpectedly launched on Tuesday afternoon.
After years of legal proceedings, the Seminole Tribe have opened up their online sports betting platform ahead of an official launch on Thursday.
In November, the tribe launched a beta version of the site available to account holders and members of Hard Rock’s loyalty scheme.
While a full launch was expected later in the week, Hard Rock president Matt Primeaux announced it ahead of schedule today (5 December) on X.
“We’re continuing our rollout of the Hard Rock Bet app in Florida and look forward to the official launch of in-person and mobile sports betting on Thursday,” a spokesperson for the Seminoles told NEXT.io.
The launch follows attempts to order a legal stay failing in both the US Supreme Court and Supreme Court of Florida.
Legal avenues not yet exhausted
In 2021, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a gaming compact with the Seminoles that granted them the exclusive right to offer state-wide online sport betting.
The legal basis for this was the so-called “hub-and-spoke” model, in which bets made off-reservation were wired through tribal servers to work around land requirements in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The compact has proved contentious, with challenges filed in both federal and state courts by two Florida parimutuel betting operators, West Flagler Associates and the Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation.
Despite initially proving victorious in federal court, forcing Hard Rock offline in the process, the parimutuels eventually lost on appeal in June 2023. This largely confirmed the compact against federal objections.
While West Flagler has sought to appeal to the US Supreme Court, the petition is still in the procedural stage, with the operators yet to file a formal writ of certiorari appeal.
However, the Seminoles could still be forced to shut Hard Rock Bet again in the event SCOTUS takes up the case and rules in favour of West Flagler.
The Florida case is also ongoing, with the state attorney general fresh from filing an legal brief on behalf of the governor responding to West Flagler’s petition.