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

The sports betting wagering ballot step gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.

Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro locations with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to authorize legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans on the planet and they revealed up big for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a declaration. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we wish 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 valuable tax profits to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval means up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly 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 casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally procedure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch their respective books.

The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains unclear if they will release mobile sportsbooks.

The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the significant professional 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 advocates of the tally step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors should anticipate other leading nationwide brand names consisting of 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 Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's ballot measure enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting choices such as wagering kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the tally procedure requires 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 background

The successful Missouri sports betting campaign comes despite millions in financing opposing the measure from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the step. In a lot 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 managed residential or commercial property.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra internal books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering manage market share, could potentially have a leg up on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, however the language around the tally procedure would seem to prefer the 2 national market leaders.

Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were boosted by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mainly by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were misleading and the 10s of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education annually.