Missouri voters authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing managed books to take bets next year.
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The sports betting ballot step gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
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Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes 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 approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

Voter approval implies up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will undoubtedly apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.

The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.

The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the significant professional sports betting teams 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 organizations were among the most popular advocates of the ballot procedure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors ought to anticipate other leading nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet Highly 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 measure enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

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

The language around the ballot step 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the step. In the majority of other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open additional in-house books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, but the language around the would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.
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Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were bolstered by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed largely by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already invests billions on education yearly.