Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting controlled books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering ballot measure gone by a slim majority early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis metro 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 this year.
" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans in the world and they showed up big for their preferred 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 expert sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting and ensures we no longer lose important tax income to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, dedicated, permanent funding stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting next steps
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Voter approval suggests approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel financed nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their respective books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.
The staying 6 licenses are booked 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 amongst the most popular supporters of the tally procedure.
Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers must expect other leading national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting wagering:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Most likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's tally procedure permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their respective home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
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The language around the tally procedure requires the very first certified 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, continually books' most financially 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 measure from one of the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the step. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted at least one license per managed home.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded at least 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the design, business can either open additional internal books or, more frequently, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering deal with market share, could possibly 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, but the language around the ballot step would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.
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Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were boosted by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the supporters' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of projected dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently invests billions on education yearly.