Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters

Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.

The sports betting wagering ballot procedure passed by a slim majority early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.

Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri permit mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes 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 sports betting. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their favorite groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses readily available without having 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 gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot step, will likely utilize its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch their particular books.

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

The remaining 6 licenses are booked 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 organizations were among the most prominent proponents of the ballot measure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other prominent nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF authorize sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Highly 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 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 casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their particular home playing places. 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 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, continually books' most profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the procedure. In the majority of other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per handled property.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open additional internal books or, more frequently, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting manage market share, could potentially have a leg up on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will make these slots, but the language around the tally measure would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.

Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were bolstered by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the earnings legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were misleading and the 10s of countless predicted dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that currently spends billions on education every year.