Missouri voters approved legal mobile and retail sports betting, permitting managed books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering tally measure passed by a slim bulk early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of 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 approve sports betting this year.
" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they revealed up huge for their favorite 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 expert sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, devoted, irreversible financing stream for Missouri class."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval means approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying charge).
Six licenses are offered to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot procedure, will likely utilize its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely release their particular books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will release mobile sportsbooks.
The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the significant 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 prominent proponents of the ballot step.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers ought to expect other leading national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting wagering:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Most 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 step permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 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 enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot procedure requires the very first licensed 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The effective Missouri sports betting project comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the measure from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In most other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per managed property.
Because scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering handle market share, might possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, however the language around the tally step would appear to favor the 2 national market leaders.
Polling earlier 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 ads concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mostly by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of countless forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already invests billions on education each year.
