Any questions about whether Hard Rock Atlantic City is going to have New Jersey sports betting were put to bed on Thursday.
At the resort and casino’s grand opening, Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen told the media that sports betting would eventually happen.
(For full coverage of the opening of Hard Rock after its transformation from the old Trump Taj Mahal, visit PlayNJ.com.)
Hard Rock AC’s plans on sports betting
There has been some question about Hard Rock’s sports betting plans, given its relationship with an NFL franchise. But Allen cleared all that up Thursday.
Here is what he said at a press conference:
I know we have had quite a few questions over the last month or so in regards to our ability to offer a sportsbook and the answer is “yes.” The media is probably aware that we are involved in the frankly now world-famous Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida. We are the host of the 100-year anniversary of the NFL and the 2020 Super Bowl. The events there have exceed even our expectations. But there are some restrictions in our agreement there which we want to comply with in accordance with our relationship with Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins and obviously the NFL.
So we will not be able to set the bet, but we certainly are able to partner with other companies, which frankly is most of the models where you partner with say a provider or a platform provider, and that will be our goal for Atlantic City.
Hard Rock AC will have NJ online sports betting, too
Allen also said Hard Rock Atlantic City would be in on the online NJ sports betting business, although we still don’t know how or when.
No. 1 we are certainly going to work within the guidelines of the Department of Gaming Enforcement in the state of New Jersey and while there are a few sports betting windows open at I think Borgata opened, we understand the market is actually more favorable with hand-held device or smartphone if you will.
So nobody has that technology approved yet by the DGE, we are in that process so we’ll be making some announcements in the next 30 or 60 days as far as how we are going to do that.
That means Hard Rock could be up and running by the time football season rolls around. We still don’t know who Hard Rock’s sports betting partner(s) will be, of course.
The Hard Rock online casino went live on Thursday as well. Its NJ online gambling partner is Gaming Innovation Group, which got the green light to go live from state regulators.