Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
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Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.
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The sports betting tally 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 eight states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations 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 authorize sports betting this year.
" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their favorite teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's expert 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 ensures we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, devoted, long-term funding stream for Missouri class."
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Missouri sports betting wagering next steps
Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.
DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly 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 casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of 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 respective books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining six licenses are scheduled 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 companies were among the most prominent supporters of the tally measure.
Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors must anticipate other prominent nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting:
Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Highly likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
Missouri's ballot procedure permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot procedure needs the first certified sportsbooks to start 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The successful Missouri sports betting campaign comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the step from among the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
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Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the measure. In most 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 property.
Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of three possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. 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 fee in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering handle market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, but the language around the ballot measure would seem to prefer the 2 national market leaders.
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Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were strengthened by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio advertisements concentrated on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were misleading and the tens of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that already spends billions on education every year.
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