Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters

Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting regulated books to take bets next year.

The sports betting wagering tally procedure gone by a slim majority early Wednesday early 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 areas with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to authorize 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 some of the best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their favorite teams 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 voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, dedicated, long-term financing stream for Missouri class.”

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the “yes” campaign and will undoubtedly apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two “untethered” licenses offered without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally’s (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.

The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will release mobile sportsbooks.

The remaining six licenses are booked for each of the major 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 advocates of the tally step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers should anticipate other prominent nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Very likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri’s ballot procedure allows every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting choices such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the tally procedure requires the very first licensed 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 lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the step from among the state’s biggest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the procedure. In a lot of other states that tie online sports betting with a state’s brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.

In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be managed at least 3 potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra internal books or, more typically, subcontract 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 deal with market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their competitors 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 measure would appear to favor the two national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year revealed the “yes” vote with a minor 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 generate for Missouri public . Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the fans’ ads were misleading and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already invests billions on education annually.