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

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

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

Missouri is the 39th state to authorize legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has some of the best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared 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 professional sports betting franchises, we wish 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 important tax revenue to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, dedicated, irreversible financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses offered without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally measure, 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 introduce their respective 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 scheduled for each of the major professional 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 prominent advocates of the tally procedure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers need to expect other leading national brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid 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 gambling establishments managed by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent 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.

The language around the ballot procedure needs the very first licensed sportsbooks to start 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 lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The effective Missouri sports betting campaign comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the measure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the measure. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given at least one license per handled property.

In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 prospective licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open extra internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, however the language around the ballot step would appear to prefer the 2 national market leaders.

Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were bolstered by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the earnings legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently spends billions on education annually.