Seminole Tribe Relaunches Hard Rock Bets as Legal Challenges Continue

After two years of waiting, Florida sports fans are once again able to wager on sports. Earlier this week, the Seminole Tribe did a fanfare-free relaunch of its Hard Rock Bets platform, ahead of the launch of in-person betting.

Unfortunately, only existing registrants and members of Hard Rock’s loyalty program, Unity, can place wagers for now. New customers can sign up but are put on a waiting list.

The relaunch of the mobile app comes in the wake of months of legal problems for the Seminole Tribe and Florida sports betting as a whole. Despite that, the tribe seems to be bullish on continuing what it started in 2021.

In addition to online betting, the tribe is set to launch retail sports betting at three of the Seminole Tribe’s casinos in South Florida. Planned for December 7, the rollout will be followed by launches at other tribal properties. The tribe hopes to soon offer in-person betting to visitors of all of its casinos in the Sunshine State.

Opponents Will Likely Continue to Challenge the Tribe

In the meantime, commercial gambling interests continue to oppose the Seminole Tribe’s exclusive right to offer sports betting in the state. The ongoing legal issues continue to cause trouble for the tribe’s betting operations and were ultimately the reason it had to pull back from the market soon after it had launched betting in 2021.

Commercial companies claim that the compact the Seminole Tribe signed with Governor Ron DeSantis violates the constitution. Led by West Flagler Associates, a lawsuit sought to oppose the Seminole monopoly over betting. West Flagler is currently seeking help from the Supreme Court after failing to make progress in federal court.

Under the local laws, tribal companies can only offer gambling on tribal laws. As a result, opponents of the tribe’s exclusivity say that it shouldn’t be allowed to offer online betting. However, the tribe and its supporters argue that their online betting operations are legal since they are operated from servers based on tribal land.

Almost two weeks ago, the US Supreme Court finally allowed the compact the tribe signed with DeSantis to come into force. However, this is probably not the end of the legal battle as opponents of the tribe can appeal the decision.