It’s all one again. The Hard Rock brand, which had been split among different owners at different times for more than three decades, is now completely controlled by Hard Rock International (HRI), which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
HRI announced Sept. 30 it has purchased the casino and hotel rights for the western part of the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Israel, Venezuela and Vancouver, British Columbia, from the company that owns the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, BREF HR LLC.
“When the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 2006 announced the purchase of the Hard Rock-trademarked brand, there was an exclusion for territory gaming west of the Mississippi,” said Jim Allen, Hard Rock International's chairman. “At that time, the only gaming in the West was in Las Vegas. Obviously, since the early ’90s gaming has expanded to Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico and all over.”
Some of the Hard Rock properties are owned outright by Hard Rock International, while others are operated by other companies who use the Hard Rock brand via licensing deals.
With this latest deal, HRI also takes over those kinds of agreements for properties that license the Hard Rock brand from BREF HR LLC.
Those properties include the Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos in Lake Tahoe, Sioux City, Iowa, and Tulsa, Okla., and Hard Rock Casino Vancouver.
As part of the purchase, Allen said HRI also renegotiated the license deal for the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. “We did not buy that asset, but there is an updated license,” he said.
Allen said there were a number of benefits to consolidating the brand.
“It creates consistency in the guest experience and in customer service because now we can be working with all the same brand standards on a global basis,” he said. “It also allows us to do Hard Rock deals in territories with respect to gaming. And it enhances the revenue stream. We are now collecting revenue streams from the licensees themselves.”
There are 23 Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos and more than 160 Hard Rock Cafes around the world.