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

The sports betting wagering ballot measure passed by a slim majority early Wednesday 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 betting. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans on the planet and they showed up huge for their favorite teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax earnings to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, dedicated, irreversible funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval means approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will certainly apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses readily available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot procedure, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their respective books.

The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains uncertain if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.

The staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the major 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 amongst the most popular proponents of the tally step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers ought to expect other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's tally step permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person sports betting 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 surrounding to their respective home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the tally procedure requires the first certified 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

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

Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per managed home.

In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be managed at least 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 additional in-house books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost 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 competitors by making the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, however the language around the ballot measure would seem to favor the two national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were reinforced by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that currently spends billions on education annually.