00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - And out of nowhere, we got, you know,
00:05 the Hard Rock app on my phone.
00:07 Now I have it on my phone.
00:08 I can't use it 'cause Florida had it,
00:10 then they took it away.
00:11 But I don't know, I just kept it on my phone, Sam.
00:13 You know how apps go.
00:14 You gotta like really be deliberate
00:15 about deleting those things, at least for me.
00:17 I don't even delete emails.
00:18 I'm a bad deleter, let's just be honest.
00:20 But then I got an update.
00:21 Oh, my Hard Rock app has been updated.
00:23 Oh, okay, it's now called Hard Rock Bet.
00:26 Why, Sam?
00:27 What's going on here?
00:28 Is anything strategic with this, just rebranding?
00:31 You tell me.
00:32 - Right, these rebrands are always funny,
00:36 whether they're strategic, what they mean,
00:37 like the HBO Max to the Max thing.
00:40 This one, if you look at the names of what it was before
00:44 and what it is now, it used to be Hard Rock Sportsbook.
00:47 Now it's Hard Rock Bet.
00:48 Craig, I'll ask you, what's different
00:49 about advertising yourself as a sportsbook
00:52 versus advertising yourself as a betting app?
00:56 - I have no idea.
00:59 - So betting means beyond sports.
01:03 And this basically signals that Hard Rock
01:05 is trying to market itself as an iGaming
01:08 and a sports betting company.
01:10 So in a couple of states, Arizona, Indiana,
01:13 Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia,
01:15 it all says Hard Rock Bet now
01:17 instead of Hard Rock Sportsbook.
01:19 Florida as well, even though the app isn't active there.
01:21 It was pretty interesting to see
01:23 that they actually took the time to rebrand that app as well.
01:26 We'll get into that in a minute.
01:27 But essentially, this means iGaming
01:30 is coming to the Hard Rock app.
01:32 New Jersey is gonna be the first state
01:33 to offer it later this summer.
01:35 It's the only state where Hard Rock
01:37 really has in place a license to do iGaming,
01:40 which is online slots, online blackjack,
01:43 stuff that DraftKings, FanDuel,
01:45 have in most states on their apps.
01:47 We've seen in the past some companies
01:49 where you have to have a separate app to do each one,
01:52 but their whole kind of game plan is to cross-sell people
01:56 into sports betting and get them onto iGaming.
01:58 So this really signals that they're moving along
02:00 on this front.
02:01 Now, the rebrand is pretty interesting
02:03 because it combines some new technology
02:06 on the iGaming front and on the sports betting front as well
02:09 that they acquired from PlayUp earlier this year.
02:12 The sports betting technology was developed in-house.
02:15 And one of the features I'm really interested
02:16 in checking out, I can't because I'm in New York
02:19 and there's no Hard Rock app here,
02:21 but it's called this Flex Parlay.
02:23 Essentially, from my understanding,
02:26 is it would allow you to bet parlays.
02:28 And if you miss out on one or two legs,
02:30 you have an option of still getting paid out.
02:34 So it's sort of like similar to this parlay insurance
02:36 that some companies have pushed,
02:38 but it seems to kind of be doubling down
02:40 on the success of the same game parlay, obviously,
02:43 that's really fueled the success of these sports books,
02:45 especially over the past year.
02:47 It's pretty much everything.
02:48 And they talk about during their earnings calls
02:50 when they talk about how they can get more money
02:53 and be more profitable.
02:54 It's really getting people to bet parlays more.
02:56 So it's cool to see a company at least experimenting
02:58 with a product like this.
03:00 Now on the Florida front,
03:01 it's been rebranded in Florida as well, which is,
03:04 I mean, yeah, to people like you down there,
03:06 it must've been pretty cool to check out the app
03:08 and all of a sudden see a notification
03:10 and there's some sort of update.
03:13 Obviously on this show,
03:14 I know you've talked about what's going on in Florida.
03:16 Hard Rock does have the ability to relaunch there,
03:20 but they haven't really said they will.
03:22 It's sort of something they're looking into.
03:23 Notable that it wasn't included
03:25 in the rebranding announcement.
03:27 The case was obviously overturned recently,
03:30 could be appealed soon in Gaul,
03:31 all the way up to the Supreme Court.
03:32 So we could have Hard Rock back in Florida
03:34 sooner rather than later.
03:35 And I say, this is a good sign that they're
03:37 trying to ramp up their technology.
03:39 (upbeat music)
03:42 (upbeat music)
Comments