Sports bar set to open at Hard Rock Casino, ready if CA legalizes sports betting
A sports bar is being built at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain in Wheatland, with a video wall expected to display as many as 20 sports events at once.
The Hard Rock Sacramento Sports Bar is on track to open in October, the casino’s president, Mark Birtha, said in a phone interview.
Birtha said guests had asked for a place to watch sports, and that the bar could readily be converted to offer sports betting if California legalizes the activity. Two state ballot propositions that would have allowed sports betting through tribal casinos — in person or on betting apps — failed in 2022.
“In the future, you’ll be able to walk up to a kiosk, be able to walk up to a sports betting window,” Birtha said, adding that he hopes another measure to permit sports betting will pass. “These are all things that need to be vetted and approved and regulated and then, you know, offered, but they can be done hopefully at a bricks-and-mortar-type location.”
The sports bar — set to open this fall without sports betting, which remains illegal throughout the state — will feature cocktails, a cigar lounge and sports memorabilia highlighting athletes from the region, according to a news release. The bar will not serve food, Birtha said.
The bar will have room for 82 people and will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day, the news release said.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM.
