Legal Florida Betting Sites

21+ and present in Florida. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-888-ADMIT-IT.

The full spectrum of Florida online betting options includes sports betting, pari-mutuel horse racing wagering, and daily fantasy sports. Fans must be at least 21 to bet on sports online in Florida, but mobile racebooks and DFS apps are open to anyone 18 or older.

Florida law explicitly authorizes sports betting and horse racing wagering, but fantasy sports sites operate in a murkier legal environment. Although there’s no consensus on whether real-money DFS contests violate Florida law, numerous fantasy sports sites have operated openly in Florida for years without issue.

This page will discuss the legalities in more detail below, but the main thing to note upfront is that the recommendations above are all legal betting sites in Florida.

Florida Online Sports Betting Overview

Real money online sports betting is legal and operational in Florida through Hard Rock Bet.

Here’s what bettors need to know about Florida sports betting online:

• The Seminole Tribe has exclusivity over online sports betting in Florida under a state-tribal gaming compact it signed in 2021
• Hard Rock Bet is the only legal Florida online sportsbook
• Customers must be 21 or older to bet online in Florida
• The Seminole Tribe regulates online sports betting in Florida

Florida Sports Betting Apps

Florida law grants the Seminole Tribe exclusivity over sports betting, making Hard Rock Bet Florida’s only legal online sportsbook.

Hard Rock Bet Florida

Hard Rock Bet offers legal online sports betting to customers 21 or older and physically located within state lines.

Fans can download the Hard Rock Bet app or visit hardrock.bet from anywhere in the state to sign up for accounts, deposit funds, and bet on sports.

Fortunately, Hard Rock Bet is a multi-state operator and has a competitive product despite its monopoly status in Florida. The Hard Rock Bet Florida app offers a welcome bonus to all new customers, regular ongoing promotions, and a loyalty program for additional rewards.

Hard Rock Bet Florida accepts wagers on professional sports, college games, the Olympics, and motor racing. Accepted bet types include a range of standard straight bets, point spreads, totals, props, parlays, same-game parlays, flex parlays, and much more.

Bettors can fund their accounts instantly and withdraw funds through online bank transfers, credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Venmo.

The Seminole Tribe initially kicked off Florida sports betting in 2021 via Hard Rock Sportsbook but ceased operations just three weeks later due to an unfavorable ruling in a lawsuit challenging the tribe’s compact with the state.

However, favorable developments in higher courts prompted the Seminole Tribe to re-launch online sports betting after a nearly two-year hiatus. The tribe also revamped and improved the app during the downtime, debuting a significantly improved product when it relaunched.

Florida Sportsbook Locations

The Seminole Tribe of Florida operates six sportsbooks at casinos across the peninsula. Bettors can find three sportsbooks around Miami, one in Tampa, and two more in southwest Florida.

Miami Sportsbooks

Three Florida sportsbooks operate in the Miami area:

• Seminole Hard Rock Casino Sportsbook in Hollywood
• Seminole Classic Casino Sportsbook in Hollywood
• Seminole Casino Coconut Creek Sportsbook in Coconut Creek

Tampa Sportsbooks

The Seminoles operate one sportsbook in Tampa:

• Hard Rock Casino Tampa Sportsbook

Brighton and Naples Sportsbooks

The Seminoles operate two sportsbooks in southwest Florida:

• Hard Rock Sportsbook at Seminole Casino Immokalee near Naples (kiosks)
• Hard Rock Sportsbook at Seminole Brighton Casino northwest of Lake Okeechobee (kiosks)

Florida Sports Betting Law

While most states have legalized sports betting by enacting new legislation, Florida took an easier route by renegotiating its longstanding gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe.

That’s in contrast to the hard way, which would require a statewide referendum. A constitutional amendment approved in 2018 requires a majority of voters to approve any gambling expansion in Florida, which is far from a given.

For instance, FanDuel and DraftKings worked for months on a ballot initiative to legalize online sportsbooks and betting apps in Florida, but it failed to gain enough signatures to make it on the 2022 ballot.

Instead, the amended gaming compact granted the Seminole Tribe exclusivity over sports betting in Florida and authorized them to accept wagers via three avenues:

• Online sports betting
• Retail sportsbooks at Seminole casinos
• Retail sportsbooks at pari-mutuel facilities partnered with the Seminoles

The Seminole Tribe fared well under its revised gaming compact, which made it the exclusive mobile sports betting hub in Florida. Under the proposal, all wagers placed through mobile devices must be routed through servers controlled by the tribe.

The agreement also gave the tribe the option to partner with parimutuel operators to offer mobile betting in exchange for 60% of their revenue, but it was not obligated to enter any such agreements.

Additional Florida Sports Betting Compact Details

Under the compact, the Seminoles agreed to the following revenue-sharing percentages with the state:

• 10% of online sports betting revenue
• 13.75% of retail sportsbook revenue

If the tribe declined to partner with at least three parimutuels within three months of the revised compact taking effect, the revenue-sharing percentage would have bumped up to 15.75%.

There was speculation that the tribe would pay the higher tax rate to avoid entering revenue-sharing agreements with pari-mutuels, but the Seminoles declined to take that approach.

Instead, the Seminoles reached Florida sports betting partnership agreements with five pari-mutuel operators:

• TGT Poker & Racebook
• Tampa Bay Downs
• Ocala Gainesville Poker & Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.
• Hialeah Park Casino
• Palm Beach Kennel Club

The agreements are essentially marketing partnerships in which the pari-mutuel operators receive 60% commissions for promoting the Hard Rock Bet app.

In some cases, customers can accrue additional benefits when signing up for Hard Rock Bet accounts through pari-mutuel operators’ websites or marketing campaigns. For example, members of Tampa Bay Downs’ loyalty program can earn additional points for placing wagers through the Hard Rock Bet app.

Other provisions in the compact include the Seminole Tribe resuming its other revenue-sharing payments to the state and dropping its opposition to player-banked card games at parimutuel facilities. In return, the Seminole Tribe also gained permission to offer craps and roulette at its Florida casinos. Additionally, the agreement permits the tribe to build up to three new casinos.

Florida Online Sports Betting Timeline

Florida legalized sports betting in 2021 by renegotiating its gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe. The federal Department of the Interior allowed the gaming compact to take effect, clearing the way for online sports betting and retail sportsbooks.

Florida online sports betting crossed the finish line first, with the Seminoles launching the Hard Rock Sportsbook FL app in November 2021. From day one, the Florida sports betting compact faced legal challenges from local groups opposed to the plan.

West Flagler Associates, a local pari-mutuel and race track operator, sued the Department of the Interior (DOI) for allowing the compact to take effect and quickly racked up a string of court victories. A group of other Florida parimutuel operators consisting of the Bonita-Fort Myers Corporation, Southwest Florida Enterprises, and Isadore Havernick joined the West Flagler suit.

Just three weeks after the Hard Rock app launched, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled against the compact after finding it in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which deals with gambling on tribal land. The decision put Florida online sports betting on indefinite pause.

In her ruling, Judge Friedrich called it a “legal fiction” to consider online wagers as taking place entirely on tribal grounds. The Seminoles requested a stay on the order so they could continue offering mobile betting while the case worked its way through the system. However, a District of Columbia appellate court denied the stay, leaving Florida sports betting on hold indefinitely.

The ruling kicked off a long-running legal battle that mostly favored the West Flagler group, keeping Florida sports betting offline indefinitely. However, the DOI scored a crucial legal victory in June 2023 when a federal appeals court overturned the lower court’s decision. The Court of Appeals ruling found it within the DOI’s authority to approve the compact. It stated that any question regarding the law potentially conflicting with the Florida Constitution is a matter for state courts to decide.

In response, West Flagler Associates petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case. The Supreme Court denied the petition, which exhausted West Flagler’s options to challenge the Florida sports betting compacts at the federal level.

West Flagler also challenged the compacts under state law, eventually petitioning the Florida Supreme Court to hear the case. However, the Florida Supreme Court also denied West Flagler’s petition.

In October 2024, the Seminoles announced an agreement with the West Flagler group to settle the Florida online sports betting dispute permanently.

Under the agreement, the West Flagler group agreed not to pursue any further litigation regarding the Seminole Tribe’s Florida sports betting operations. In return, the Seminole Tribe agreed to partner with the West Flagler group to offer and promote jai alai betting on the Hard Rock Bet app.

Jai Alai Betting and Cruise Ship Sportsbooks

In late 2024, the Seminole Tribe and West Flagler Associates reached an agreement to offer Battle Court jai alai betting markets on the Hard Rock Bet app beginning in early 2025.

Previously, parimutuel jai alai betting and sportsbooks on cruise ships were the only exceptions to Florida’s previous ban on sports betting.

The exemption for jai alai betting dates to a time in Florida during which jai alai was much bigger than today. Jai alai came to Florida in the 1920s and quickly established a foothold. With warm weather year-round and easy access from Spain and Latin America, Florida became a popular destination for jai alai athletes worldwide.

During its heyday, jai alai was exempted from state and federal sports betting prohibitions. Jai alai maintained a strong presence in Florida through the 1970s but entered a steady decline in the 1980s amid increasing competition from professional sports teams, the lottery, and South Florida casinos.

For a time, jai alai survived primarily as a means to facilitate other forms of gambling due to Florida gambling laws that required card rooms to offer some form of parimutuel wagering.

However, Florida jai alai operators hope to spark renewed interest in the sport through the Seminole Tribe’s agreement with Battle Court jai alai to offer jai alai betting on the Hard Rock Bet app.

The other “exception” to Florida’s prior sports betting prohibition occurs on cruise ships operated by Victory Casino Cruises. Victory Casino Cruise ships depart twice a day from Port Canaveral. These ships sail out into international waters, open a casino and sportsbook for a few hours, and then return to shore later that same day.

Florida Online Horse Racing Betting

The Florida horse racing betting industry consists of two thoroughbred racetracks, dozens of off track betting locations, legal online racebooks, and a wildly successful breeding culture.

The state has not passed a law formally legalizing online horse racing betting, but most ADW operators accept Florida customers 18 or older.

Fans can read more about the industry and see BettingUSA’s recommended Florida horse racing betting sites here:

• Florida Horse Racing Betting Sites

Florida Daily Fantasy Sports

Florida has a vibrant daily fantasy sports industry, but the state has yet to pass a bill explicitly authorizing and regulating DFS contests. Current law does not address real money DFS contests, and their legality has never been tested in court. As a result, Florida’s fantasy sports sites operate in a grey area where their contests are neither legal nor illegal.

However, the most popular daily fantasy sports sites accept customers from Florida and host real money contests every day. Readers can learn more about the current state of fantasy sports in Florida and see BettingUSA’s highest-rated DFS operators below:

• Florida Daily Fantasy Sports Apps

Is Online Gambling Legal In Florida?

Florida does not yet have legal online gambling, but that could change over the medium term.

Increasing numbers of reports indicate that the influential Seminole Tribe is interested in operating online casinos in Florida, but many details are still lacking. See our Florida online gambling guide below for a primer on the current gambling landscape, an overview of the paths Florida could take to legalize online casinos, and recent updates:

• Florida Online Casinos

Are Online Lottery Sales Legal In Florida?

State law does not address online lottery sales, and the Florida Lottery has never tested whether it has the authority to offer lottery games online.

However, third-party lottery courier apps may have enough legal wiggle room to operate in Florida because they purchase official lottery tickets from authorized retailers on behalf of customers. See the following link for an in-depth guide to the Florida Lottery and online ticket sales:

• Florida Online Lottery

Florida Sports Betting FAQ