Hard Rock Digital Partners With Genius Sports for Sports Data, Fan Engagement Deal

Written By JR Duren on October 12, 2021 - Last Updated on February 4, 2022
hard rock florida genius deal

Hard Rock Digital is locking down its sports betting game.

This past week, the brand, which has ties to a pair of Hard Rock casinos in Florida, announced a deal with Genius Sports. Genius offers proprietary in-game betting markets for NASCAR, the NFL and other sports.

Marlon Goldstein, the digital executive managing director and CEO of Hard Rock, said:

“Hard Rock Digital is proud to partner with best-in-class partners like Genius Sports in order to curate the best place to play. Our aspiration is to build the best brand in digital gaming and betting, and look forward to partnering with Genius Sports on our launch and beyond.”

Extent of Hard Rock Florida’s new partnership

Genius Sports brings a wide variety of sportsbook-friendly data pools to Hard Rock Digital. The company is the exclusive provider of the NFL’s real-time and official play-by-play statistics.

Genius also provides Next Gen Stats, a suite of consumer-friendly analytics that covers:

  • How fast a player ran on a particular play (miles per hour)
  • Fastest sack (seconds)
  • Longest completed air yards on a single pass
  • Average separation yards per route run

In addition to NFL and NASCAR data, Genius sports provides in-play content for contests in the NBA, MLB, English Premier League and professional soccer leagues in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia.

Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke said:

“This partnership with Hard Rock Digital will provide millions of customers with immersive and highly engaging live betting experiences, powered by the highest quality official data. Across each step of acquisition, engagement and retention, we provide our partners with a unique value proposition that is transforming fan experiences and the entire sports, betting and media landscape.”

How the deal affects Florida sports bettors

With the launch of Florida sports betting coming on Oct. 15, there are some questions about how the Hard Rock-Genius Sports partnership will affect Florida sports bettors.

There are several unknowns:

  • Will the Seminole tribe use Hard Rock Digital’s sports betting platforms?
  • If they do, when will players have access to Genius Sports’ data?
  • Will bettors in Florida be able to place bets on sports betting’s launch day?

Despite those questions marks, one thing is sure: The Seminole Tribe of Florida was ahead of the game. Hard Rock Gaming launched in December and instantly became the exclusive sports betting platform for Seminole Gaming.

At the time, there were no whispers of a mobile sports-betting compact between the tribe and the state. So, the tribe’s access to Hard Rock Digital’s sports betting platform was a moot point.

However, the partnership undoubtedly gave the tribe time to understand what a mobile sports betting rollout would require. Hard Rock Digital is headquartered in Hollywood, FL, where the tribe has a Hard Rock hotel-and-casino property.

The Seminole tribe, Hard Rock Digital, nor Genius Sports have made any announcements in the past few weeks regarding the upcoming sports betting launch in Florida.

Photo by Wilfredo Lee / AP
JR Duren Avatar
Written by
JR Duren

J.R. Duren has covered the gambling beats for more than a dozen states for Catena Media since 2015. His past reporting experience includes two years at the Villages Daily Sun, and he is a first-place winner at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Contest.

View all posts by JR Duren