Hard Rock Florida

Without warning, prior notice, or any prior indication it would happen, the Seminole Tribe and Hard Rock Sportsbook have banded together to launch their first online sports betting market in Florida, accessible through desktop/laptop computer browsers and most (if not all) popular mobile devices using Android or iOS.

The new service allows users to open accounts and accept wagers via their mobile app, available to Floridians across the Sunshine State Panhandle aged 21 and older. Like Hard Rock Casino, the sportsbook is available through a dedicated iOS and Android mobile app, or a desktop version accessible via most popular browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.

Currently, to download the mobile app, users must download it directly from the operator’s website at www.hardrocksportsbook.com, where more comprehensive download info is provided.

The site operates via gaming software technologies provided by the Gaming Innovation Group, and is subject to whatever rules, regulations, and limitations may be imposed by your local betting market. You are also limited to opening one, and only one, betting account. Failure to do so will likely be seen as an abuse of trust, and will likely have you banned from the sportsbook service.

Online sports betting was already included in the approved Florida & Seminole Tribe gaming contract, but has long remained a point of contention for industry lobbyists and pari-mutuels. Even so, against the pressures from naysayers and industry rivals, the Seminole Tribe & Hard Rock Casino have moved forward with this business venture anyway.

This launch comes upon the precipice of a potentially momentous court hearing for Florida sports betting on November 5th, as the courts hear a lawsuit by West Flagler Associates against the U.S. Dept. of Interior Deb Haaland relating to a betting regulation dispute. It’s the latest of three momentous legal fights in the Florida legal sports betting industry, as the state struggles to sort out what the future of its legal iGaming and sports betting industries will ultimately look like.

Progression and advancement in the sports betting industry have long been an uphill battle in the traditionally-conservative leaning Sunshine State. So it’s been quite a surprising rumor mill since last Spring, wherein the otherwise staunchly conservative Governor DeSantis was rumored to be in the process of making closed-door negotiations with the Seminole Tribe and his own party constituents.

Successfully, the Seminole Tribe was able to convince DeSantis to approve a new betting compact in the state, granting them exclusivity rights over how the local industry is run. In return, the tribe is slated to owe the state a decent chunk of change - approximately $2.5 billion over the next half-decade.

Although this compact is a huge step forward for the Florida sports betting industry, it’s not a huge step that was taken overnight. This was a move that has been in the works since last spring, and even after DeSantis gave the Seminoles the green light, the betting compact had to undergo a 45-day review from the Department of Interior to ensure that it was compliant with the IGRA, an important piece of legislation regulating Native American gaming ventures.

It’s this review which the impending legal battle is related to, and it’ll be interesting to see which way the outcome shakes out. While it’s not illegal for the Seminole Tribe to advance their sports betting practices before this case is heard, it could potentially be a costly move depending on the outcome of the case. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be costly for you to take advantage of their new Florida sports betting market. Learn more about Hard Rock’s newest sportsbook offering here.

Hard Rock Sportsbook Betting Games

Right now, Hard Rock Sportsbook facilitates wagers across a very wide range of betting markets, or to be more precise, just short of a dozen. Their U.I. currently allows you to access various betting markets in all of the following sports:

• Baseball
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Darts
• Football
• Golf
• Ice Hockey
• MMA
• Motorsports
• Soccer
• Tennis

It’s weird to think that someone’s thunk up a betting market for something as niche as darts, but the folks at Hard Rock Sportsbook thought of doing precisely that. It’s unfortunate that they currently don’t have any open betting markets for the World Chess Boxing Association or the British Shin Kicking World Championships, but the point still remains – on Hard Rock, you can basically place sports bets on just about everything else, AND the kitchen sink.

Each market offers even splits on spreads, point totals, and moneylines, and depending on which sporting events you choose to wager on, Hard Rock will accommodate the options for live bets and futures betting. All in all, if you’re a fan of just about any major professional sport, Hard Rock Sportsbook will most likely have an open betting market for it.

The app is supported by a straightforward, easy-to-use, and highly intuitive user interface that allows users to navigate all these options with ease. Even if you’re totally new to online sports betting, the platform does a stellar job being minimally intimidating and maximally accessible to the everyday layperson. Moreover, if you like to follow any sporting action outside our neck of the woods, then no problem!

Most of the sports betting markets outlined above accommodate wagering on international sports, meaning that you could bet on CFL games as easily as you could NFL games, or German and Chinese basketball matchups as easily as NBA matchups in the United States.

If a wager winds up cashing out, you’ll have a lot of methods to withdraw that money. Vice versa, you’ll also be able to use all of the following payment methods to deposit funds into your betting account:

• Bank Transfer
• ACH
• VISA
• Mastercard
• PayPal
• PayNearMe
• Play Plus

Another nifty feature implemented by Hard Rock Casino & Sportsbook is betting limits, more specifically, spending, time, and deposit limits. Wagering can be a fun side hustle, and certainly a way to liven up the entertainment value of events with friends, but it’s important that you never wager more than you would be comfortable losing.

So, as a helpful stopgap to disincentivize irresponsible, addictive wagering, Hard Rock Casino & Sportsbook has implemented these three tools:

• Deposit limits prevent you from depositing funds into your account until the limit has been reset. These limits can be imposed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
• Time limits help you moderate how much time you spend logged in betting, and can be tapered daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Spend limits limit how much money you’re willing to risk on a given gaming session

Resources like these can go a long way toward helping people gamble safely, responsibly, and conscientiously, and they’re safety measures we would love to see more sportsbooks implement more broadly in the coming years.

The law also subjects Hard Rock Sportsbook players to geolocation limits, meaning that Florida players who registered to open a Hard Rock Sportsbook Account in Florida can only use the app or website’s sports betting services while they are physically present in the state of Florida. This rule even applies to other areas with active legal betting markets of their own, areas like:

• Michigan
• New Jersey
• Indiana
• Colorado
• Tennessee
• New Hampshire
• Pennsylvania
• Iowa
• Virginia
• Connecticut
• Illinois
• Arizona
• Washington D.C.
• Mississippi
• Louisiana
• West Virginia

Moreover, Hard Rock Sportsbook offers plenty of fruitful promotions, bonuses, and reward opportunities that are sure to keep players safe, careful, and profitable. In the interest of offering the most comprehensive overview we possibly can, we’re going to go over more about them in the next section.

Hard Rock SportsBook Promotion Offers

Right now, Hard Rock Sportsbook is slated to offer a wealth of generous betting promotions and bonus codes for players in Florida and their betting markets elsewhere. Although their offerings are admittedly a little scant compared to Hard Rock NJ’s promotion offers and bonus codes, it’s reasonable to assume that these offerings will grow with time, just as they have with sportsbooks elsewhere.

If you sign up now, you can have a risk-free bet, reimbursing you up to $100 in lost wager cash! Although perhaps not as generous as a $1,000 or $2,000 match bonus, you’re likely not going to want to risk much betting juice to start anyway. In our book, any free reimbursement money is good money.

The app also opened with over/under, spread, parlays, and prop bets related to the most recent Monday Night Football matchup, as the Kansas City Chiefs faced off against the New York Giants and beat them 20-17 at their home Arrowhead Stadium.

After more time has passed, it’s reasonable to assume that more specific betting promotions will be added relating to these specific types of wagers, just as they’re offered by more of the industries’ best online sportsbooks.

All in all, although the platform could maybe use a slightly bigger selection of options, Hard Rock Sportsbook Florida seems to be off to a solid start after its surprise launch, as an intuitive, user-friendly, safe, and highly accessible sports betting platform.