Bills Mafia infiltrated the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino last weekend, painting the casino with a hue of royal blue and red before a critical showdown against the Miami Dolphins.
Inside a glitzy South Florida sports bar adorned with a giant wall of large-screen TVs, Bills fans gleefully wagered on the Steelers-Ravens matchup and other sports events on the Saturday slate. One Bills supporter who donned a custom-made “Juice 32” jersey in homage to O.J. Simpson has already booked a trip to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.
The month after the relaunch in Florida of Hard Rock Bet, the Seminole Tribe’s sports betting app, its brick-and-mortar casino was reaping benefits from the return of sports betting to the Sunshine State. Thousands of Bills fans made the trek from western New York to attend the matchup at Hard Rock Stadium, and throngs of them spent hours beforehand at the namesake casino on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Wagering from out-of-state tourists represents just a sliver of overall sportsbook handle. Hard Rock Bet maintains a monopoly on both retail and online sports betting across the state, and the volume of activity not only exceeded the company's expectations, it has been “humongous,” a Hard Rock executive told on the condition of anonymity.