Hard Rock joining the online casino business after partnering with GiG



Hard Rock International is poised to open an online casino on USA soil, alongside Atlantic City’s traditional land-based casino industry.

The company made the announcement last week that it has entered into a strategic partnership with the iGaming technology company, Gaming Innovation Group (GiG), to setup a new online casino in New Jersey. The new online gambling website would be licensed and regulated, and most likely operate under a Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City internet gambling license in New Jersey. However, owners of the newly renovated Trump Taj Mahal property have yet to acquire the license.

In April 2017, Hard Rock International entered into a partnership with New Jersey property developers, The Morris Family, and construction and energy developers, The Jingoli Family, to acquire the closed $1.2 billion Trump Taj Mahal Atlantic City Boardwalk property for a sum of $50 million.

Immediately, the group then announced plans for a $375 million renovation and re-branding of the property. However, the price of the renovation has since escalated to about $500 million. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City gambling and entertainment complex is scheduled to open in the summer.

Among the amenities included will be a completely revamped and redesigned hotel, fitted with pieces from Hard Rock's worldwide renowned collection of music memorabilia. Also, the property will feature first-class services in food and beverage concepts, alongside two separate arenas expected to host live music, sporting events, conferences, and shows. Additionally, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City will feature a casino hosting 2,400 slots and 130 table games, built to compete with the biggest casinos in town.

Hard Rock has made its ambition of dominating the Atlantic City casino and hotel market know, as it now begin to expand its tentacles to include online gambling. Kresimir Spajic, Hard Rock’s Online Gaming SVP, said he has his sights on nothing less than global leadership in the online gambling world.

“Hard Rock has an ambitious plan to become a global leader in the international online gaming space. We are confident that, together with GiG, we can disrupt the market, through product innovation and unique user experience,” said Spajic.

CEO of GiG, Robin Reed, remarked that he's confident that the Hard Rock brand will certainly help them achieve global relevance.

“We are excited to be part of Hard Rock International’s inspiring and innovative plans to become a global leader in the international online gaming space,” said Reed. “The online casino will be a stand-out product with the sizzle of the Hard Rock music, entertainment and lifestyle brand.”

The partnership entails GiG would provide Hard Rock with what it describes as “a state of the art digital consumer portal.” Also, it would provide the back-end platform to manage the operation.

GiG’s design and development team in collaboration with Hard Rock will develop the online casino which should launch sometime this year, according to both companies.

Hard Rock will obviously be providing its recognizable branding and marketing for the site. However, the partners may also be searching for additional third-party software providers for its online casino games.

Several New Jersey online casinos have had equally enjoyed success after entering into partnerships with third-party online casino software providers including video game and online gaming developer, Konami, when it teamed with SugarHouse to launch exclusive online titles. Also, popular casino gaming company and slots designer and developer, IGT, works with every site except 888.


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