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

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

Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri enable 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 authorize legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their favorite groups 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 wish 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 wagering and ensures we no longer lose important tax profits to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, devoted, permanent financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" project and will certainly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses readily available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely introduce their particular books.

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

The staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the major 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 companies were amongst the most prominent proponents of the tally measure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors ought to anticipate other prominent nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters approve 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 tally step enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially committed, 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. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot measure needs the first licensed 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, continually books' most financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the procedure from one of the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to beat the step. In a lot of other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per managed residential or commercial property.

In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more typically, 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. across the country sports betting deal with market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, however the language around the tally step would seem to favor the two national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were reinforced by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the supporters' ads were deceptive and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently spends billions on education every year.