The 2024 Summer Olympics are underway in Paris. Team USA is the betting favorite to win the most overall and gold medals. More than 10,000 athletes from around the world will participate in 329 events. 

These are the first Games since sports betting returned to Florida in 2023. Betting was briefly allowed in the fall of 2021. 

Legal sports betting is available in Florida for those eligible over 21 through the Hard Rock app and at retail sites at the Hard Rock Casinos in the state. 

The Hard Rock app and retail book is offering action on the following Olympic events. 

• 3x3 Basketball
• Badminton
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Golf
• Handball
• Field Hockey
• Judo
• Road Cycling
• Rugby
• Soccer
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Tennis
• Track & Field
• Track Cycling
• Volleyball
• Wrestling

The gaming compact that allows legal sports betting across Florida was allowed to stand after the U.S. Supreme Court in June chose not to hear a case that could have seen it deemed invalid.

Thus, Seminole Tribe of Florida no longer faces any legal challenges from West Flagler Associates (WFA) or anyone else to its monopoly on sports betting in the state until the current deal expires in 2051. 

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The court's ruling ended nearly a three-year journey through both the state and federal court system that began with lawsuits filed back in late 2021. A federal judge halted the compact in November of 2021. But it was reinstated last year after a federal appeals court overturned that decision. 

Earlier this year, the Florida State Supreme Court threw out an attempt to hear the case in Tallahassee on procedural grounds. 

Florida Sports Betting Timeline: How We Got Here?  

📅  July 26: The 2024 Paris Olympics Games officially begin with the opening ceremonies. These are the first Games upon which Floridians can legally wager. 

📅  June 17: The U.S. Supreme Court denies a petition to hear a case that could have overturned the compact, meaning it will stand until 2051. 

📅  April 22: Underdog Fantasy brings its Champions peer-to-peer DFS game to Florida. That comes 2 months after it was forced to exit the state because of its daily single-player pick' em game.

📅  March 23: The Florida Supreme Court rules that a case challenging the legality of the Florida Gaming Compact cannot be directly brought before the Court. 

📅  February 29: Three fantasy sports operators - betr, Prize Picks, and Underdog Sports - halt their daily single-player pick' em games after receiving "cease and desist" letters from the state.

📅  February 20: Economists estimate the Hard Rock Bet app and its related retail sports books could generate as much as $750 million in gross gaming revenue in its first full fiscal-year of operation.

📅  February 11: Super Bowl 58 becomes the first Super Bowl upon which Floridians can legally wager.

📅  February 8, 2024: West Flagler files writ of Writ of Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.

📅  December 7: Craps, roulette, and sports betting launch at all three Seminole Casinos in South Florida: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood, and Seminole Casino Coconut Creek.

📅  December 8: Craps, roulette, and sports betting Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa

📅  December 11, 2023: Craps, roulette, and sports betting launch at Seminole Casino Immokalee, near Naples, and Seminole Brighton Casino, on the northwest side of Lake Okeechobee. 

📅  November 8, 2023: West Flagler Associates seeks expedited ruling and stay from Florida Supreme Court

📅  November 7, 2023: Hard Rock App relaunches in Florida after a nearly two-year hiatus. 

📅  November 2023: Tribe announces "New Era In Florida Gaming" with craps, roulette, and in-person betting starting in December.

📅  November 2023: West Flagler Associates is expected to file a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking in to hear its case against the DOI.

📅  October 2023:  U.S. Supreme Court denies a stay on the U.S. District Court of Appeals decision to reinstate the compact. allowing it to take effect.

📅  October 2023: The appeals court orders Friedrich to vacate her decision, officially reinstating the compact.

📅  September 2023: Court of Appeals denies request for full en banc hearing. 

📅  June 2023: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns Federal Judge Dabney L. Friedrich's reversal of the compact.

📅  February 2023: West Flagler Associates sells Magic City Casino.

📅  December 2022:  A 3-judge federal appeals court hears an appeal of Friedrich's decision that overturned the compact.

📅  January 2022: Appeal of Friedrich's decision filed by the Department of Interior in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit.

📅  November 2021: Betting on the Tribe's app halted after 34 days. 

📅  November 2021: Friedrich overturns compact, calling parts of it "fiction." 

📅  October 2021: Sports betting begins statewide via the Tribe's Hard Rock betting app. It has since been re-branded to Hard Rock Bet.

📅  August 2021: Multiple state and federal lawsuits are filed to overturn the compact, including two by West Flagler Associates.

📅  May 2021: DeSantis and Tribe Chairman Osceola sign a 30-year, $500 million-per-year gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida after it is approved in a special session of the Florida Legislature. 

📅  November 2018: Florida voters approve Amendment 3 (now Article X, Section 30 of the Florida Constitution). It prohibits the legislature from enabling any new "casino gaming" – save for a compact with the Seminole Tribe. It requires 60% approval by the public in a statewide election to expand "casino gaming." It makes no mention of "sports betting." "No Casinos" authored the amendment. That group then worked with Disney and the Tribe, who financed the push for its pass. The Tribe spent more than $24 million of the $46 million raised to back the amendment, state election financial records show. With Disney spending more than $11 million. 

What Florida Sports Betting Looks Like?

The online sports betting market in Florida remains a monopoly for Seminole Tribe. The Hard Rock app met with generally positive reviews in the Sunshine State. It offers similar odds to its competitors elsewhere. The app currently operates in Arizona, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Florida has two MLB teams, two MLS clubs, three NFL franchises, two NHL squads, and two NBA franchises. The state has long been a college hotbed, thanks to the University of Florida, Florida State, and the University of Miami. Both the "U" and Florida Atlantic University reached the NCAA Men's Final Four in 2023. 

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The compact requires the Tribe to franchise betting retail, on-site betting rights to at three of the state's parimutuel operators. The parimutuel operators would be free to partner with any operator to run their retail books, such as DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM. In return, the operators would pay the Tribe 40% of their net winnings.

WFA sold the Miami Magic City Casino for an estimated $600 million to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians from Alabama in February.