Missouri voters authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting tally step passed by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to authorize legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.
" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their preferred groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's professional 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 wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax profits to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, permanent financing stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval suggests approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot measure, will likely utilize its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays uncertain if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.
The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the major expert 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 proponents of the ballot procedure.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers need to anticipate other prominent nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.
Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Very likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's tally step enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering choices such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing venues. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot procedure needs the first licensed sportsbooks to begin 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The effective Missouri sports betting wagering project comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the step from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the procedure. In many other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given a minimum of one license per managed home.
Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting manage market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally step would seem to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.
Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were reinforced by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the earnings legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that currently invests billions on education each year.
