Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting tally step gone 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 consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas 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 a few of the best sports betting fans in the world and they showed up big for their favorite groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all six 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 legalize sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax income to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, long-term funding stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting wagering next steps
Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 readily available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel financed 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 readily available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch 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 remaining 6 licenses are reserved for each of the major professional sports betting teams 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.
Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors ought to anticipate other prominent nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.
Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting wagering:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard 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 casinos managed by the six gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering alternatives such as wagering kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the tally procedure 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, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the step from among the state's largest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the step. In many other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved at least one license per handled home.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded at least 3 prospective licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more typically, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering manage market share, could possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by making the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot step would seem to favor the 2 national market leaders.
Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were strengthened by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were deceptive and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that currently invests billions on education yearly.
