Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters

Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting managed books to take bets next year.

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

Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to approve 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 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 6 of Missouri’s professional sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax income to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, dedicated, irreversible financing stream for Missouri classrooms.”

sports betting next actions

Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed 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 available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally’s (Bally Bet) will also 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 six licenses are reserved for each of the major expert sports betting groups 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.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers need to expect other prominent national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve 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 ballot step enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and possibly devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot measure requires the first licensed 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 background

The effective Missouri sports betting project comes despite millions in funding opposing the procedure from one of the state’s biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the step. In many other states that tie online sports betting with a state’s brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given at least one license per managed home.

In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be managed at least three potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra in-house books or, more typically, farm out 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 manage market share, might possibly have a leg up on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, however the language around the tally procedure would seem to favor the 2 national market leaders.

Polling previously in the year showed the “yes” vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were strengthened by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the earnings legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed largely by Caesars, argued the supporters’ ads were misleading and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education each year.