Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing controlled books to take bets next year.
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The sports betting ballot step passed by a slim majority early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas with Missouri, respectively.
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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 best sports betting fans on the planet and they showed up big for their favorite teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we desire 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 ensures we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, devoted, permanent funding stream for Missouri classrooms."
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Missouri sports betting wagering next actions
Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will undoubtedly 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 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 procedure, will likely use its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce 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 staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the significant 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 organizations were among the most popular advocates of the ballot procedure.
Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors need to expect other leading national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting wagering:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's ballot step enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their particular home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot procedure needs the very 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, continually books' most profitable time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting wagering background
The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes despite millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the step. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per handled home.
Because circumstance in Missouri, would be paid for a minimum of three possible licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open extra in-house books or, more frequently, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering deal with market share, might possibly have a leg up on their rivals by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot measure would appear to favor the 2 nationwide market leaders.
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Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were reinforced by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of tv and radio ads focused on the income legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly 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 already invests billions on education annually.