The Hard Rock Bet mobile sports betting app was up and running in Florida Tuesday morning for customers in the state who signed up for an account before Nov. 6.
“The Seminole Tribe is offering limited access to existing Florida customers to test its Hard Rock Bet platform,” a spokesman for the tribe said in a statement to Sports Handle.
No further information on the surprise launch was provided by the tribe, although screenshots from the Hard Rock Bet app indicate that Florida bettors who’ve yet to sign up can do so now in order to be put on an “early access” waitlist.
Last week, the tribe announced it would allow sports betting, craps, and roulette at its brick-and-mortar casinos in Florida starting on Dec. 7, deciding not to wait to hear about the fate of a pair of lawsuits questioning the validity of its compact with the state.
The Seminoles had recently won a victory in the courts when the U.S. Supreme Court denied West Flagler and Associates’ (WFA) request to stay a lower-court ruling, allowing the tribe a legal avenue to offer online wagering. But no mention of mobile sports betting was made in the announcement concerning the brick-and-mortar sites, leaving many industry watchers expecting the mobile rollout to come at a later time.
“I have no idea technically where the app stands or where the contracts with suppliers like GeoComply or others stand” one industry insider told Sports Handle last week. “It’s something we’ve all been following, but I think once the stay was denied [by the U.S. Supreme Court], I don’t know that while we were all following the legal stuff that they were preparing [to go live].
“They’ve waited this long. I don’t think they are going to pull any bold moves. The worst thing that could happen is that they would [launch the app and then] have to take it down.”
Back in November 2021, the Seminoles launched the then-named Hard Rock Sportsbook in Florida, but after two federal court orders, the tribe was forced to take it offline after 34 days.
This is a developing story.