Florida bettors can finally bet on sports again.
Online sports betting is live in the state again as of Nov. 7, according to a report by The Action Network.
However, there is only one sportsbook available for bettors: Hard Rock, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe. And in the meantime, only bettors who had accounts with Hard Rock from Nov. 1 to Nov. 21, 2021, are allowed to place bets.
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That three week period in November 2021 was the only time the Hard Rock sportsbook app was live. Two smaller casinos had filed a case against Hard Rock, causing the whole sports betting space in the state to freeze.
But in October, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Seminole Compact to offer sports betting in the state. The Seminole Tribe is also reportedly launching in-person sports betting next month starting on Dec. 7.
Florida has had an interesting journey to return to a point where residents can bet again. The Seminole Tribe made a deal with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, which allowed them to have control over betting in the state, but that deal was reversed by a federal judge in December 2021.
In June 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia again reversed the decision in favor of the Seminole Tribe, only for West Flagler Associations, a company that owns other casinos in the state, to appeal the decision in August.
That delayed Hard Rock's launch — but only by a few months as the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal from West Flagler in October.
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However, the launch of Hard Rock does also come with another major compromise for Florida bettors. Hard Rock will have a monopoly of the sports betting in the state, and major players like DraftKings, FanDuel, and ESPN Bet will not be available in the state.
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