Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting controlled books to take bets next year.

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

Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro 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 approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has some 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 declaration. "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 approving Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax earnings to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, dedicated, long-term funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are used.

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

Six licenses are available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot 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 introduce their respective books.

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

The staying 6 licenses are scheduled 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 organizations were amongst the most popular proponents of the tally step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers should expect other leading nationwide brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

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

Missouri's ballot step enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person sports betting choices such as sports betting kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing locations. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the tally measure needs the first licensed 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the step from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the step. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given at least one license per managed residential or commercial property.

In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 3 potential licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra internal books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have a leg up on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, however the language around the ballot procedure would seem to favor the two nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the earnings legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of countless projected dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education every year.