Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing managed books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering tally measure passed by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri permit mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro 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 approve sports wagering this year.
" Missouri has a few of the best sports betting fans in the world and they showed up big for their favorite groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we desire to thank the Missouri citizens 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 important tax profits to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, dedicated, irreversible financing stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" project and will unquestionably 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 casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot step, will likely utilize its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely release their particular books.
The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays uncertain if they will release mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining 6 licenses are scheduled for each of the significant 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 ballot measure.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers must expect other prominent nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.
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 Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's ballot step enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot measure 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, perennially books' most profitable time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the procedure from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In the majority of other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.
Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for 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 in-house books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors 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 measure would seem to favor the 2 national market leaders.
Polling earlier in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were strengthened by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio ads concentrated on the earnings legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently spends billions on education yearly.
