Trivia night was never as profitable as it was last week for Hard Rock’s online customers. The grand prize was expected to total $5000, but instead, Hard Rock paid all of its participants the grand prize, leading to a $1.7 million mistake.
Costly Mistake
Hard Rock’s technical faux pas led to jubilation amongst its 353 trivia players in New Jersey, each receiving their own grand prize of $5000 when the contest ended. That error totaled a whopping $1,765,000 mistake that Hard Rock has no intention of reclaiming from their lucky players’ accounts.
“When made aware of the incorrect Live Trivia payouts, our response was quick and deliberate: the awards stand. While others may have tried to claw back the $5,000 awards — Hard Rock Bet wants to put our customers first wherever possible, not just when it’s convenient,” said Hard Rock Bet President Matt Primeaux.
Hard Rock Digital is one of several licensed iGaming platforms operating in New Jersey. However, only seven states, including Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, along with the Garden State, have launched their iGaming industry open to all licensed private gaming operators.
However, because the Seminole Tribe, through its Hard Rock gaming platform, has a compact with Florida, it is the exclusive operator of mobile sports betting and iGaming in the Sunshine State.
Analysts Bullish on Hard Rock
Considering that Hard Rock has the exclusive online gaming market in Florida all to themselves, analysts are bullish on the company’s future. A valuation of the company has been estimated at $8 billion by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) consultants.
EKG released a statement that read, “The bullish upgrade appears to assume Florida online casino in the next couple of years. That’s in line with our own projections, which estimate a go-live date in 4Q26.”
Nevertheless, Hard Rock has not dismissed the idea of some of the industry’s heavy hitters, like FanDuel and DraftKings, joining them in the Florida market if the price is right. The inclusion of one or more iGaming operators in Florida could diminish its online revenue through Hard Rock, but the additional revenue shared by other companies would likely make up for any shortfall.
Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen said, “We do recognize that long term, some type of strategic relationship with some of the brands that really have marquee value could be helpful to both of us, and we are receptive to those conversations.”
“I would say whether it’s FanDuel or whether it’s DraftKings, we’ve actually developed a great relationship with them,” Allen added.
The shift in perspective is markedly different than a few years ago when the major mobile sportsbooks spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a campaign to legalize online sports betting in California against the wishes of the Native American tribes. The campaign was defeated at the polls by Californians rejecting mobile gaming, handing the tribes the win they also spent hundreds of millions trying to defeat.
Subsequently, FanDuel and DraftKings have made amends with the tribes and are diligently working with them, and not against them, in the hopes they will agree to bring mobile sports betting to California.
