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

The sports betting wagering ballot measure gone by a slim majority 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 consists of Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas 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 wagering this year.

" Missouri has some of the finest sports betting fans in the world and they appeared big for their favorite 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 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 guarantees we no longer lose important tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, dedicated, irreversible funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval indicates up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered 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 2 "untethered" licenses available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying charge).

Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot step, 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 release their particular books.

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

The staying 6 licenses are reserved for each of the significant expert 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 popular advocates of the ballot procedure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers should expect other leading national brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting wagering:

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

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

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

The language around the tally measure needs the 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, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

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

Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the procedure. In a lot of other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per handled residential or commercial property.

In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 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 internal books or, more frequently, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting manage market share, might possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by making the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally procedure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of television and radio advertisements concentrated on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were deceptive and the tens of countless forecasted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently spends billions on education each year.