Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing controlled books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering tally procedure 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 permit mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided 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 wagering. It is the only state to authorize sports betting wagering this year.
" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their preferred 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 professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, devoted, long-term funding stream for Missouri class."
Missouri sports betting wagering next actions
Voter approval suggests up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot step, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch their respective books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.
The staying six licenses are scheduled for each of the significant expert sports betting groups 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 prominent proponents of the tally step.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers should expect other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting wagering:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Most likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's tally step enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot measure needs the first certified sportsbooks to begin accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely deal with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, perennially books' most profitable time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting wagering background
The effective Missouri sports betting campaign comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the procedure from among the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars invested countless dollars to beat the step. In most other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given a minimum of one license per handled home.
In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 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 extra internal books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting deal with market share, might possibly have a leg up on their rivals by making the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, however the language around the ballot step would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.
Polling earlier in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were strengthened by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that currently spends billions on education yearly.
