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

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

Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri permit mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas 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 approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared big for their preferred 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 citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, devoted, permanent funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

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

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will undoubtedly use 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 charge).

Six licenses are 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 launch their particular books.

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

The remaining six licenses are reserved for each of the significant professional sports betting groups 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 amongst the most prominent proponents of the tally step.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers must anticipate other prominent nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting wagering:

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

Missouri's tally measure enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering choices such as sports betting kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting teams can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot step 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 lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

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

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the procedure. In most other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted at least one license per handled home.

Because scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, subcontract 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 deal with market share, might potentially have a leg up on their rivals by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to favor the two nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of television and radio advertisements concentrated on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already invests billions on education annually.