Missouri voters authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing managed books to take bets next year.
The sports betting ballot measure gone by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city 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 wagering this year.
" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans in the world and they showed up big for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a declaration. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, dedicated, long-term financing stream for Missouri class."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably use 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 fee).
Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite 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 likewise likely introduce their respective books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.
The staying 6 licenses are reserved for each of the major professional 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 companies were among the most popular advocates of the ballot measure.
Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers must expect other prominent nationwide 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
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's tally step permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot step 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, continually books' most financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars spent countless dollars to beat the step. In many other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per handled residential or commercial property.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, 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 handle market share, might potentially have a leg up on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot measure would appear to prefer the 2 national market leaders.
Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were bolstered by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of tv and radio ads focused on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were deceptive and the 10s of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already invests billions on education each year.
