Hard Rock Sportsbook Review

Reviewed By Richard Janvrin

Online sportsbooks. Online casinos. Online slots. Social casinos.

Published: Sep 04 · 8 min read

Updated: June 2nd, 2021

Even if you’ve never placed a sports bet or played casino games, you likely know the name “Hard Rock”, one of the most well-known brands both because of the Hard Rock Café and its forays into gambling. After PASPA was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2018, Hard Rock jumped into legal online sports betting in June of that year.

Since its launch, Hard Rock Sportsbook has leveraged its name recognition to get people through its virtual doors, and those bettors have stayed thanks to a quality welcome bonus, customer support, an attractive interface and heaps of different sports and leagues to wager on. Let’s take a closer look at what Hard Rock online sportsbook has to offer.

The registration process at Hard Rock Sportsbook is easy and simple to complete in almost every case. If you are a Wild Cards Reward Member, you can sync your account with your Hard Rock account. However, for new players it is still short and simple. Here is the step-by-step registration process. Enter:

1. Email and password
2. Name, date of birth, and mobile phone number
3. Complete address
4. Security question and gender
5. Agree to terms of service

After these steps, you will also need to provide the last four digits of your Social Security number and, in some circumstances, a government-issued ID. In our experience signing up, we still needed to contact customer support, which we have been assured is the exception. That said, customer service was efficient and attentive, and got our online gaming account active quickly.

• ACH
• Visa
• MasterCard
• PayNearMe: In-person cash transaction with a voucher at retailers such as 7-Eleven, Family Dollar and CVS.
• PayPal
• Play+ Card: This is a reloadable card branded by Hard Rock Casino online. You can deposit funds to the card from a bank account or credit card.
• Cash at Casino: Done in person at the brick-and-mortar affiliate casino or online sportsbook

All deposit methods require a minimum of $10.

• PayPal
• Play+
• Bank Transfer/ACH
• Cash at casino cashier cage

Be sure to allow for up to 3-5 business days for withdrawals to process.

Hard Rock Sports Welcome Bonus

While the welcome bonus at Hard Rock Sportsbook is not currently a deposit match, the one offered here is still a great deal, even for beginners: a truly $100 risk free bet. After depositing $100 or more and making your first wager of $100 or more, you will be safe no matter what, up to the first $100. If you lose, you will get the $100 back within 24 hours. Hence a risk free bet.

But here’s what makes the Hard Rock online sportsbook offer so good: the money isn’t given back as bet credits; it’s cash. Thus, you can withdraw it and be on your way if you choose. To obtain this offer, bettors must opt-in on the promotions page.

The Hard Rock online sportsbook app is set up like desktop but optimized to better fit a mobile screen. Across the bottom you’ll find the promotions tab. Once you select a game to wager on, the betting slip will appear from the bottom of the app and is collapsible. Meaning, it will be just above the bottom menu of the app.

Overall, the mobile app is better and easier for any sports bettor to navigate than desktop. There are buttons for the home page, a search menu and the different sports listed across the type in both icon form and by name, too.

Known as Rockstar Rewards, Hard Rock online sportsbook does have a Rewards/Loyalty Program. With this, each time you wager on the site, you will get credited toward your rewards account. With these rewards, you can get free swag, hotel comps and more. Also, these comp dollars and tier points will be credited to your wildcard balance every 24 hours. Points can also be earned at the Hard Rock online casino.

Sports and Markets Available at Hard Rock

Hard Rock Sportsbook is currently active online in New Jersey and Iowa. It is unclear if Hard Rock will look to expand into states with legal sports betting unless it already has a brick-and-mortar property there.

Hard Rock Sportsbook originally launched in New Jersey back in June 2018, tethered to Hard Rock Atlantic City. Hard Rock NJ has continued to flourish as an online sportsbook in the Garden State, offering complete sports wagering options, including the very popular live betting.

Hard Rock Sportsbook Iowa launched in December 2019, tethered to its namesake, Hard Rock Sioux City. It’s initial growth was tempered by the mandate that all registrations needed to be in-person, but that requirement expired on January 1, 2021. This Iowa sportsbook is accessible for bettors throughout the state.

Hard Rock Sportsbook offers a wide array of online sports betting offerings. In addition to the usual suspects such as the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and college football and basketball, players can also wager on MMA, soccer, rugby, motorsports, darts, golf, cycling, boxing and Aussie Rules football. This caters to both your everyday sports bettor and more niche audience, too. This is the perfect balance of sports offerings.

When it comes to contests at Hard Rock Sportsbook, it does offer some from time-to-time, including a March Madness Bracket Madness contest. This challenge is free, and you win by simply getting your March Madness Tournament choices correct. If you win, you will receive a 3-day/2-night stay at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City with a $150 food/beverage comp and $1000 in sportsbook cash.

Beyond this unique content, Hard Rock Sportsbook offers the usual betting options: Straight bets, spread, parlays, round robin, futures bets, team prop bets, player prop bets and more. The notable type of wager missing, however, are player props.

A straight bet on who will win a contest. There is no spread to balance the odds. A favorite will be represented with a negative number such as -200 (meaning you must bet that much to win $100) while an underdog will be a positive number such as +180 (the amount you win with a $100 bet).

The spread balances a favorite and underdog, creating a payout typically of -110 no matter which side you take. For example, if an NFL team is a 6.5-point favorite (-6.5), it must win by 7 or more for its backers to cash. A 6.5-point underdog (+6.5) must lose by 6 or less or win.

Hard Rock sets a total amount of combined points in a game and you bed whether it goes over or under.

Parlays allow for players to bet on numerous contests on one ticket. However, for a parlay to win, each “leg” must win. So, if you bet on three moneyline wagers, all three must win. You will get a bigger payday with the enhanced risk.

Round Robins are related to parlays. This will pick groupings of multiple contests and parlay them together. So, if you choose 3 different contests, Round Robin will give you the option to bet on all three as single wagers, list the number of possibilities for 2-team parlays and 3-team parlays. In this case, there are 3 combinations for 2-team parlays and 1 combination for 3-team parlays. You will insert the amount of money you wish to wager on each parlay, and it will total the amount and list your estimated winnings if you win all the different possibilities.

This allows for players to wager on events that are happening in the future, such as the next Super Bowl champion or World Series winner.

Team prop bets allow for players to wager on cumulative team statistics. For example, how many rebounds a basketball team will have, or which team will get to 20 points first.

Live Betting is a feature offered by Hard Rock Sportsbook that allows bettors to wager on games that have already begun, with a computer algorithm updating spread, moneyline, totals and even prop bets in real time.

If the cash out option is offered on your wager, it will allow for you to settle your wager early. For example, if you wager on a team that has a spread of -7 but they are losing 14-0, you will have the option to settle the wager and lose less money; you can also use it to lock in a profit on a winning bet if you are worried about a backdoor cover burning you.

Currently there is no odds boost offered at Hard Rock Sportsbook.

Hard Rock Sportsbook is available on desktop and for mobile devices, offering a mobile app for both iOS and Android users.

While the mobile app is a slightly better platform, the desktop version of the sportsbook also works well. You will find all the sports available to wager on across the top of the screen. You will also see Live Betting options listed. Lastly, with desktop, the betting slip does not have its own space. It will populate in the bottom right side of the screen, and this can sometimes cover some potential markets. There are some minor design flaws, but overall for a US gambling site, it is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

The mobile app is set up like desktop but a lot more centered. It is easy to navigate with the icons for the sports across the top and everything is clickable to bring you to the right menus. The mobile app doesn’t have the same minor design issues as desktop, and everything manages to fit nice and well on a much smaller screen.

Found at the bottom of the page and the top right of the desktop platform is a link to the Hard Rock Sportsbook Responsible Gambling section. Not only does Hard Rock provide contact information for both state and national helplines, but it offers some important in-house settings, too. For example, you can set limits on yourself when it comes to session time, spending and depositing. Additionally, if you wish, you can self-exclude from the platform, making it impossible to log in for a lengthier time.

Overall, Hard Rock Sportsbook is a fun, engaging and easy to use sports wagering platform. It offers a unique welcome bonus, is a breeze for new bettors, offers some of the best odds in the market. One downer is the lack of player prop bets that most other legal sports betting sites offer. However, aside from that, there are plenty of betting markets and betting types to keep even the avid sport bettor engaged.