Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting tally measure passed by a slim bulk early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro locations with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile sports betting. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.
" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans on the planet and they showed up huge for their favorite groups 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 want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose important tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting wagering next actions
Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will certainly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely introduce their particular books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains unclear if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.
The staying 6 licenses are scheduled for each of the significant expert sports betting teams that play home video 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 organizations were amongst the most popular supporters of the tally step.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to expect other prominent national brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.
Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Most likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's ballot measure allows every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person wagering alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their respective home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the tally measure requires 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, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The effective Missouri sports betting campaign comes despite millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In many other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per managed residential or commercial property.
In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be managed at least 3 prospective licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open extra in-house books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting manage market share, might possibly have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, however the language around the tally procedure 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 bolstered by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already spends billions on education annually.
