Florida Sports Betting
Online sports betting and retail sportsbooks are legal in Florida.
Hard Rock Bet is the only sportsbook authorized to operate in the Florida online sports betting market and accepts customers 21 or older. State law confines all other Florida sports betting sites to pari-mutuel horse racing wagering and daily fantasy sports.
In addition, the Seminole Tribe operates six retail sportsbooks at its Florida casinos. Continue below for a complete list of legal Florida betting sites, retail sportsbook locations, and how the state regulates both.
Legal Florida Betting Sites
$100 Welcome BonusFliff Promo Code: BUSABONUS
No purchase necessary. 18+, T&Cs Apply. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Free Entry + $100 Deposit BonusParlayPlay Promo Code: BUSA
18/21+, T&Cs Apply. Welcome offer is for players who make their first successful deposit to ParlayPlay. Following the deposit, you receive promo entry(s) that matches the deposit amount up to $100. The promo entry can only be used to enter up to 4-pick More/Less contests. If you lose the promo entry, your account balance is not impacted. The deposit promo entry(s) must be used within 7 days of deposit. After 7 days the free entry will expire. If you have concerns about managing your play on ParlayPlay or anywhere else, or if you’re concerned about a family member or friend, the National Council on Problem Gambling offers support through telephone or text. They can be reached confidentially (24-hours a day) at 1-800-522-4700. Or contacted on their website at https://www.ncpgambling.org/ or through chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.
$200 Deposit BonusTwinSpires Offer Code: BET200
Void where prohibited. Terms and conditions apply. Offer for TwinSpires Racing only. See TwinSpires.com for details. Must be 18+ (21+ where applicable). For help with a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
$150 Deposit BonusAmWager Promo Code: BUSA150
Promotional offer valid and continues until further notice.
Open to new AmWager account holders who have not previously opened an AmWager account. Individuals may only have one (1) AmWager account and may only qualify for a signup promotion one (1) time.
The First Deposit Match Bonus promotion applies to the first deposit made; any subsequent deposits will not apply.
The amount of the first deposit will determine the amount of the bonus and bets that must be placed to earn the bonus. For example, to qualify for the maximum bonus of $150 an initial deposit of $150 is required and total bets must equal $150 or more within 30 days of sign up. Cancelled wagers and refunded wagers are not eligible and will not be counted towards the promotion.
The total promotional wagering credits will be credited to the AmWager account in a single deposit within seven (7) business days of meeting the betting requirements for this promotion. Any promotional wagering credits deposited to a player’s account must be wagered and cannot be withdrawn from the account. Any winnings from those wagers are cash and can be withdrawn.
Any portion of the promotional credits unused expires after 30 days.
Account must remain in good standing to be eligible for all promotions. Returned deposits during the promotional period will cancel eligibility to receive promotional wagering credit.
Limit one promotional offer per household.
$200 Deposit BonusDRFBets Promo Code: STAKES
Must be 18 or older (21 in AL, AZ, IA, IN, KS, NH, ND, WA) to open an account with DRF Bets and reside in a state where such activity is legal. Void where prohibited. Always Wager Responsibly. If you think you might have a problem, please contact the National Gambling Helpline (800) 522-4700. T&Cs Apply.
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.
State law could change, or the Seminoles could partner with other operators to launch additional sports betting apps in Florida, but that seems unlikely.
In all likelihood, Hard Rock Bet will retain its Florida online sports betting monopoly for quite some time.
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:
Brighton and Naples Sportsbooks
The Seminoles operate two sportsbooks in southwest Florida:
- Seminole Casino Immokalee Sportsbook near Naples
- Seminole Brighton Casino Sportsbook northwest of Lake Okeechobee
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.
Per the compact, the tribe shares 13.75% of its sports betting revenue with Florida – but only if it partnered with at least three parimutuel operators on sports betting within three months. If the tribe declined to partner with at least three parimutuels, the revenue-sharing percentage would bump 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
Other provisions in the compact include the Seminole Tribe resuming its 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.
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 West Flagler Associates, 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.
Essentially, the Court of Appeals decision re-legalized sports betting in Florida but left state courts as a potential avenue to challenge the compact should West Flagler Associates lose in federal court.
But first, West Flagler Associates has committed to petitioning the Supreme Court of the United States to hear the case. In addition, West Flagler filed a motion of stay with SCOTUS to prevent the Seminole Tribe from acting on their plan to re-launch the Hard Rock Bet Florida app.
The Supreme Court denied the motion, and the Seminole Tribe soft-launched Hard Rock Bet for a limited number of Floridians on November 7th, 2023. The Hard Rock Bet Florida app opened to the general public on December 5th, 2023.
If the Supreme Court declines to hear the case, West Flagler Associates will have exhausted its opportunities to challenge the Florida sports betting law at the federal level. If SCOTUS decides to hear the case, it could take months or years to answer the Florida sports betting question.
In either case, West Flagler may still challenge the law in state court. In fact, West Flagler has already filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court to challenge the Seminole Tribe’s sports betting plan.
Jai Alai Betting and Cruise Ship Sportsbooks
Parimutuel jai alai betting and sportsbooks on cruise ships exist as the two notable 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.
Today, jai alai is a niche sport, and only a handful of active frontons are in operation. For the most part, jai alai survives primarily due to Florida gambling laws that require card rooms to offer some form of parimutuel wagering (such as jai alai, greyhound racing, or horse racing betting). Thus, most jai alai frontons exist primarily to facilitate other forms of gaming.
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
$200 Deposit BonusTwinSpires Offer Code: BET200The Florida horse racing betting industry consists of two thoroughbred racetracks, dozens of OTBs, legal online racebooks, and a wildly success breeding culture. The state has never passed a law formally legalizing online horse racing betting, but all brand-name 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:
Greyhound Racing in Florida
In November 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 13 to end greyhound racing. The amendment made greyhound racing and betting on live greyhound races held in Florida illegal starting on January 1st, 2021.
Existing race tracks may still offer poker and other games, but they can no longer host live greyhound races or accept wagers on races held in Florida.
This amendment also does not affect online greyhound racing betting, which remains legal because the amendment only prohibits wagers on races held in-state. Even so, the amendment’s effects are reverberating throughout the nation because Florida accounted for more than half the country’s remaining greyhound race tracks when it took effect.
Floridians have just a handful of out-of-state greyhound tracks to bet upon moving forward, and that number seems likely to dwindle as well. The national greyhound industry has seen better days amid falling revenue and growing concerns over the treatment of greyhounds.
Florida Daily Fantasy Sports
$100 Deposit BonusUnderdog Fantasy Promo Code: BETUSAFlorida 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, all mainstream 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:
Is Online Gambling Legal in Florida?
The legality of online gambling in Florida depends entirely on the activity. Online horse racing betting, greyhound betting, and daily fantasy sports are all permitted in Florida. Sports betting may join the list soon, but online casinos and poker remain prohibited.
FL Stat § 849.08 states:
Whoever plays or engages in any game at cards, keno, roulette, faro or other game of chance, at any place, by any device whatever, for money or other thing of value, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
Whether or not this statute applies specifically to placing wagers with unlicensed operators is open to debate. However, players who choose to visit offshore gambling sites do so at their own risk and potentially in violation of state law.
Florida Sports Betting FAQ
Wes Burns has more than a decade’s worth of experience as a writer, researcher and analyst in the legal gambling industry and is co-founder of BettingUSA.com. As a former professional online poker player, Wes approaches his work from the viewpoint of players.