Hard Rock Digital online sports betting returns to Florida in soft launch
Formerly shuttered operator begins pre-registration period despite spectre of double legal challenge looming
Hard Rock Digital (HRD) has begun a pre-registration period to relaunch its online sportsbook in Florida, almost two years after a US district court judge ordered its closure.
In a suitably cryptic post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Seminole Gaming subsidiary announced its return with a video of WWE wrestler The Undertaker, who famously returns from the ‘dead’ before every match.
The operator later followed this up with a less cryptic post, detailing the process by which Floridians could join a waiting list to register accounts to be used at an undisclosed time yet to be confirmed by the operator.
However, the post confirmed that bettors who had previously placed bets with the HRD sportsbook and those who are members of the Unity by Hard Rock loyalty program are free to place bets online immediately.
Reacting to the news on LinkedIn, Chris Krafcik, MD at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, revealed some key data points from the boutique firm’s findings.
Krafcik noted internal estimates project Florida would be worth $815m in 2027, which discounts for the monopoly model.
He added that that figure would mean Florida alone would be worth 4.5% of national US market.
The news comes less than a week after the announcement of a return of retail sports betting operations at six Hard Rock casinos located throughout the Sunshine State, billed by Seminole Gaming as “A New Era in Florida Gambling”.
This in turn came off the back of a US Supreme Court decision to not enforce a stay on the implementation of a DC Court of Appeals ruling in a case involving the Seminole Tribe and two Florida-based parimutuel operators, West Flagler Associates and the Bonita Fort Myers Corporation.
HRD’s Florida online sportsbook operations were shut down in November 2021 after the pair successfully challenged the validity of a 30-year gaming compact agreed with the state of Florida in May 2021.
The compact allowed for online sports betting using servers based on tribal lands under a “hub and spoke” model, which the parimutuels argued contravenes the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
In November 2021, in Florida, Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled in favor of West Flagler and Bonita Fort Myers, ordering the closure, a decision which the Seminole Tribe would later appeal.
After much wrangling, and the transference of the case to the DC Court of Appeals, justices at the court overturned the prior ruling in June, allowing the tribe to relaunch.
However, that relaunch was further placed on hold, after West Flagler and Bonita Fort Myers undertook proceedings to have a stay implemented on the ruling by the US Supreme Court.
The parimutuel pair are understood to be preparing to petition the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to ask the court to review the decision.
A separate petition to ask the Florida Supreme Court review the 30-year compact on constitutional grounds is currently ongoing, with written testimony expected from plaintiffs including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in December.