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

The sports betting wagering tally step gone by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
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Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations with Missouri, respectively.
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Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting this year.
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" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared huge for their favorite 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 wish to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, dedicated, irreversible funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next actions

Voter approval suggests as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed 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 two "untethered" licenses available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally step, 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 launch 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 reserved for each of the significant professional 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 amongst the most prominent advocates of the tally step.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers must anticipate other prominent nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:
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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 tally step allows every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the 6 casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering options such as wagering kiosks and possibly devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

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

The language around the tally procedure requires 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering project comes despite millions in funding opposing the procedure from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars invested countless 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 given a minimum of one license per managed property.

In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open extra internal books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering deal with market share, could possibly have a leg up on their rivals by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, however the language around the ballot step would appear to favor the 2 national market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the supporters' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education each year.