Hard Rock Bet’s slot-like historical motor-racing games in Florida helped propel a 161% increase in Playtech’s U.S. and Canadian revenue during the first half of 2026, highlighting the potential value of sportsbook offerings that extend beyond conventional live and pregame wagering.
- Playtech’s U.S. and Canadian revenue increased 161% to approximately $64.9 million, primarily driven by Hard Rock Bet’s Florida games.
- The $1 house-banked games use results from previously conducted motor races and qualify as sports betting under Florida’s Seminole compact.
- Playtech’s Hard Rock Digital investment rose to $281.5 million and produced an approximately $5-million first-half dividend.
Playtech generated approximately $64.9 million in U.S. and Canadian revenue during the six months ending June 30, up from about $24.9 million during the same period last year. The company attributed the growth primarily to games powered by Past Motor Races, a sports-betting product offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida through Hard Rock Bet.
Although the games resemble online slots, customers wager on the results of previously conducted real-world motor races. The structure is similar to historical horse racing, which also uses previously completed races to determine results.
For each wager, a customer can select the finishing order of drivers in three past races, though the games default to an automatic selection that requires no player action. The wagers are placed against the house rather than through a pari-mutuel pool and were introduced with a $1 minimum, the same minimum as Hard Rock Bet’s other Florida sports-betting markets.
Online casino gambling is not authorized in Florida. The games, which were introduced in October 2025, instead fall under sports betting through the Seminole Tribe’s 2021 compact with the state, which defines sports betting as wagering on any past or future professional sporting or athletic event. The compact grants the tribe exclusive control over online sports wagering in Florida.
More Hard Rock figures
The results illustrate the potential of alternative betting products as operators look beyond traditional moneylines, point spreads, and totals to drive customer activity. Playtech wrote in its recent financial report that the product’s performance contributed to strong customer growth at Hard Rock Bet.
The growth also contributed to a substantial increase in the value of Playtech’s minority investment in Hard Rock Digital, Hard Rock International’s vehicle for global interactive gaming and sports betting. Hard Rock Digital is also the Seminole Tribe’s primary sports-betting vendor in Florida.
Playtech invested $85 million in Hard Rock Digital in March 2023 in exchange for a low-single-digit minority interest comprising equity shares and warrants. The investment was valued at $281.5 million as of June 30, up from $210 million at the end of 2025.
Hard Rock Digital paid Playtech a dividend of approximately $5 million during the first half, more than double the approximately $2.4 million distributed in the comparable 2025 period. The dividend was included in Playtech’s adjusted EBITDA.
Online gaming importance
The Florida offering illustrates how operators can use products outside the traditional sportsbook menu to increase engagement among recreational customers.
As sports betting spend stagnates and prediction market volume grows, traditional sportsbook operators may instead need broader product selections that create additional betting occasions and retain lower-stakes customers. The $1 minimum and slot-like presentation of Hard Rock Bet’s games could expand the products' appeal beyond customers accustomed to conventional sports wagers.
Hard Rock Bet’s exclusive access to Florida provides a significant advantage for that strategy; it can offer the games to customers in one of the country’s largest states without competition from other statewide mobile sportsbooks. Though the company doesn’t disclose its Florida financials, Florida is undoubtedly its most lucrative jurisdiction among the 10 states and one Canadian province (Ontario) in which it operates.
Florida’s success with slot-like games reaffirms the importance of real-money online casino offerings on digital gaming operators’ bottom lines.
Only four states offer competitive online casino gaming: New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Still, iGaming platforms in those four states account for roughly 40% of major U.S. operators’ total nationwide revenue.
Despite that financial contribution, advocates have had little success convincing lawmakers to legalize online casino gaming, largely because of concerns about cannibalizing existing brick-and-mortar gaming and exacerbating problem gambling.
Though historical motor sports-type games could provide a new opportunity in other states, Playtech cautioned that the first-half contribution from Hard Rock Bet’s Florida gaming offerings should not be treated as a permanent growth rate. The company expects the contribution to decline from its elevated first-half level as the product enters a more mature stage.
That creates the central question for the second half of 2026: whether Hard Rock Bet can turn the initial success of its slot-like sports betting games into sustained customer activity across its broader sportsbook and iGaming portfolio. Beyond Hard Rock, the results could also shape whether other states pursue similar games or other real-money gaming options heading into 2027.
