Missouri voters approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing controlled books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering ballot procedure gone by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.
" Missouri has a few of the best sports betting fans worldwide and they revealed up huge for their favorite teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, dedicated, long-term funding stream for Missouri class."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval suggests up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" project and will undoubtedly apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying cost).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally procedure, will likely use its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their particular books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will release mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining 6 licenses are booked for each of the significant professional sports betting groups that play home games in Missouri: MLB's Kansas City Royals and Cardinals, the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, NHL's St. Louis Blues, MLS' St. Louis City SC and the NWSL's Kansas City Current. The sports betting companies were among the most popular supporters of the ballot measure.
In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers should expect other leading nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.
Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's ballot measure permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person wagering choices such as sports betting kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot step needs the very first certified sportsbooks to start accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely work with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, continually books' most rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting wagering background
The effective Missouri sports betting project comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the procedure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted at least one license per managed residential or commercial property.
In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra in-house books or, more typically, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting handle market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, however the language around the ballot measure would seem to prefer the two national market leaders.
Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were strengthened by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the revenue legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mainly by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education each year.
