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

The sports betting wagering tally step 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 divided the Kansas City and St. Louis metro 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 approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has some 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 6 of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we desire to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 means a new, devoted, permanent financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.
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DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses readily available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).
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Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally step, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely release their respective books.
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The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains unclear if they will release mobile sportsbooks.
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The remaining six licenses are booked for each of the major expert sports betting teams 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 companies were amongst the most popular advocates of the ballot step.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers need to expect other prominent national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet Very most 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 permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
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The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective 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 needs the first certified 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, perennially books' most rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The effective Missouri sports betting campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the step from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the measure. In many other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per handled home.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 3 prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open additional internal books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting deal with market share, could possibly 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 ballot measure would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were misleading and the tens of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already spends billions on education each year.