Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting wagering ballot 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 includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro locations with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.
” Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their favorite groups on Election Day,” Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a declaration. “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 approving Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and ensures we no longer lose important tax earnings to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, devoted, irreversible financing stream for Missouri class.”
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval suggests as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the “yes” campaign and will certainly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 “untethered” licenses offered without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally measure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally’s (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their particular books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will release mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining 6 licenses are scheduled for each of the significant expert sports betting teams 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 proponents of the tally measure.
In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors must anticipate other prominent national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.
Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
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 procedure permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering choices such as wagering kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing places. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the tally step requires the first licensed sportsbooks to begin 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 lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state’s biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars invested 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 approved a minimum of one license per handled property.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be managed a minimum of 3 prospective licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more typically, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in .
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting handle market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their rivals by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot procedure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.
Polling previously 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 tv and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the supporters’ advertisements were misleading and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that currently spends billions on education every year.