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 bulk early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split 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 a few of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their preferred groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert 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 wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri class."
Missouri sports betting wagering next actions
Voter approval means up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably apply 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 fee).
Six licenses are offered to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally step, 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 respective books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining 6 licenses are scheduled for each of the major expert 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 popular supporters of the tally procedure.
In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers need to anticipate other leading national brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.
Launch probability 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 step permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person wagering alternatives such as wagering kiosks and possibly devoted, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their respective home playing places. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot step needs 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 wagering background
The effective Missouri sports betting wagering project comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the measure from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the procedure. In many other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted at least one license per handled property.
Because situation in Missouri, Caesars would be managed a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting handle market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by making the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.
Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were reinforced by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio ads concentrated on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education annually.
