Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting tally procedure gone by a slim majority early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri permit 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 sports betting. It is the only state to authorize sports betting wagering this year.
” Missouri has some of the best sports betting fans in the world and they revealed up huge for their favorite groups on Election Day,” Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. “On behalf of all six of Missouri’s expert sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax income to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, dedicated, long-term funding stream for Missouri classrooms.”
Missouri sports betting wagering next steps
Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the “yes” project and will undoubtedly apply 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 gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying cost).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally’s (Bally Bet) will also likely launch 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 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 companies were among the most prominent supporters of the ballot procedure.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers ought to anticipate other leading nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize 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 measure permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting groups can likewise 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 needs 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, perennially books’ most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting wagering background
The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state’s largest sports betting stakeholders.
Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the measure. In a lot of other states that tie online sports betting with a state’s brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given a minimum of one license per handled residential or commercial property.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded at least 3 possible licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra in-house books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering deal with market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, however the language around the tally step would seem to favor the two national market leaders.
Polling previously in the year revealed the “yes” vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were reinforced by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the supporters’ ads were deceptive and the 10s of countless projected raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently spends billions on education each year.