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After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the the District of Columbia recently overturned a lower court ruling, sports betting is now technically legal in Florida.
Once the court’s June 30 ruling is put into effect, the Seminole Tribe, which has a monopoly on gaming in the state, would have the right to open retail sportsbooks at any of its tribal casinos, launch its Hard Rock Digital platform, and establish partnerships with parimutuels that could potentially bring other operators into the state.
The looming question is when all of this will commence.
The Seminoles won’t answer that question at this juncture, standing by their Friday statement that they are “reviewing the decision to determine next steps.” But from a procedural standpoint, the launch can’t legally happen before the end of August — and potentially much later.
According to Rule 35 of the circuit court, the judgment won’t become a mandate until 45 days after it was issued. And since there is also a seven-day clerks’ order on the case, the soonest the mandate would be in effect would be 52 days from last Friday, or Aug. 21, which is two-and-a-half weeks ahead of the first NFL game of the regular season between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday, Sept. 7. The first full Sunday of games is set for Sept. 10.
That scenario assumes that West Flagler and Associates, which brought the case against U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb A. Haaland, chooses not to appeal. If West Flagler does appeal, the timeline could stretch out by months, if not years.
Florida would be biggest live state
Should the Seminoles have the opportunity to launch in August, Florida (21.7 million people) would become the biggest state by population to offer digital wagering for the 2023 NFL season.
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New York, which has 19.8 million residents, launched four major operators on Jan. 8, 2022, and there are currently nine platforms available (the maximum allowed by state law), including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, and WynnBET.
Floridians won’t have the range of choice that New Yorkers currently have. The 2020 Seminole-Florida compact gives the Seminoles a monopoly but leaves the door open for commercial operators that want to partner with parimutuels for access. In October 2021, the Seminoles announced deals with five parimutuels.
The setup would be costly for commercial operators, however, and would require the DraftKings and FanDuels of the world to put their proprietary technology on a Seminole or Hard Rock server, as all bets must flow through servers on tribal land. Under the 2020 compact, any parimutuel-commercial operator partnership must provide the Seminoles 40% of gross revenue.
Per the compact, the Seminoles are able to offer sports betting, daily fantasy, and table games, including craps and roulette. The legal sports betting age is 21, and wagering is permitted on professional, collegiate, and Olympic sports. The compact does not allow for online casino games.
Next steps
The Hard Rock digital platform was live for 34 days in November and December of 2021 before both the district and appellate courts ordered the Seminoles to take it down. The tribe launched the platform days before oral arguments began in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in November 2021.
If the first go-live is any indication, the Seminoles won’t give much warning before they launch.
There is a lot of nuance in terms of what could happen next. West Flagler’s lead counsel did not reply to inquiries from Sports Handle, but the company has multiple appeal options. West Flagler could appeal to the appellate court to have the case re-heard, either by the original three-judge panel or en banc, which would be before all 11 active judges on the court. Should West Flagler go this route, the current stay issued by the appellate court in December 2021 would remain in effect and the Seminoles would not be able to launch as long as the case is still being decided.
Another option would be to appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to legal experts. But in that case, because West Flagler would then not be asking for a new hearing in the appellate court, the existing stay would expire. Legal experts say that should West Flagler opt to appeal to the Supreme Court, it would likely also file for an injunction to keep the Seminoles from launching.
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