Seminole Tribe Sues DraftKings Over Florida Sports Betting
The Seminole Tribe of Florida has filed a lawsuit against DraftKings, alleging the operator is running an illegal sports betting business in the state in breach of the Tribe's exclusive gaming compact.
The 72-page complaint, filed Thursday in Broward County Circuit Court, asks a judge to order DraftKings to stop operating what the Tribe describes as a traditional sportsbook product in Florida.
What The Lawsuit Alleges
The Tribe's compact with Florida, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and ratified by state lawmakers in 2021, grants the Seminoles exclusive rights to operate sports betting throughout the state for 30 years.
The lawsuit claims DraftKings' prediction-market-style product functions like a conventional sportsbook and that DraftKings CEO Jason Robins has publicly described it as "functionally identical" to the company's licensed sportsbook offerings in other states.
"Every wager that [DraftKings] now accept through their illegal sportsbook siphons away revenue that funds both the Tribe's and Florida's public programs and government services," the lawsuit states, arguing the product diverts betting into an unregulated market and strips Florida bettors of consumer protections guaranteed under state law.
Part Of A Wider Fight
The filing adds Florida to a growing list of jurisdictions where tribal operators and state regulators are challenging prediction-market platforms and major operators' sports-adjacent products as unlicensed betting in disguise.
Hard Rock Bet, the Tribe's own online sportsbook and casino platform, has operated as the sole licensed mobile wagering option in Florida since the compact took effect.
DraftKings has not filed a public response to the Broward County complaint. The case is the latest example of legacy sportsbook operators facing legal pressure in states where prediction-market-style contracts have proliferated outside traditional gaming licensing frameworks.
Why Florida's Compact Matters
Florida's 30-year compact, one of the most restrictive in the country, was designed specifically to channel all mobile sports betting through the Seminole-owned Hard Rock Bet platform in exchange for guaranteed payments to the state.
It's an arrangement that survived a federal court challenge after it was structured so that bets are deemed to be placed on tribal land via servers on the Seminole reservation. Any product a court finds to be a de facto sportsbook operating outside that structure threatens the core economics of the deal for both the Tribe and the state.
The lawsuit lands as several other states grapple with how to classify prediction-market contracts offered by DraftKings, Kalshi, Polymarket and similar platforms, with regulators and tribal gaming operators in multiple jurisdictions arguing the products amount to unlicensed sports betting dressed up in financial-markets language. A ruling against DraftKings in Florida could influence how other compact states approach the same question.
Details of the complaint were first reported by CBS News Miami, which reviewed the Broward County filing, and corroborated separately by NBC6 South Florida's own review of the 72-page complaint.
Refer to Cashback Terms & Conditions for full program terms.
