Missouri voters approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing controlled books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering ballot step passed by a slim majority 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 city areas 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 some of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they revealed up huge for their favorite groups 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 desire to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax profits to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, devoted, permanent financing stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting wagering next steps
Voter approval indicates approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses readily available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying cost).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally procedure, 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 release their particular books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.
The staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the major professional 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 supporters of the tally step.
In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers should anticipate other leading nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Very likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's tally step enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting options such as wagering kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the tally procedure requires the first certified sportsbooks to start accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely deal with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, continually books' most rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting wagering background
The effective Missouri sports betting project comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the procedure. In a lot of other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved at least one license per managed residential or commercial property.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have a leg up on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will make 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 strengthened by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the income legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of millions of projected dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that currently spends billions on education yearly.
