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

The sports betting ballot step passed by a slim majority early Wednesday 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 city locations with Missouri, respectively.
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Missouri is the 39th state to approve 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 a few of the best sports betting fans worldwide 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 6 of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose important tax income to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, permanent funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting next actions

Voter approval suggests as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

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

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally procedure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their particular books.
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The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.
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The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the significant professional 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 companies were among the most prominent proponents of the tally procedure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers need to expect other prominent national brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's ballot procedure enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their respective home playing places. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot procedure requires the first licensed sportsbooks to 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 rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering project comes regardless of millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the step. In most other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be managed a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
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FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting deal with market share, might possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by making the pair of untethered licenses. It stays 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.

Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were boosted by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of projected dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that currently invests billions on education yearly.
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