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

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

Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That of Kansas and Illinois, which divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas with Missouri, respectively.
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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 very best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared huge 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 want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, devoted, irreversible financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval means approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are utilized.
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DraftKings and FanDuel financed 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 having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally procedure, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages 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 release mobile sportsbooks.
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The remaining six licenses are booked 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 popular proponents of the ballot step.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors should expect other leading nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet Highly likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET Are Already Reside In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Acid Rock, Circa Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars
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Missouri's tally procedure allows every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as wagering kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
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The language around the tally measure requires the first certified sportsbooks to begin 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 project comes despite millions in funding opposing the measure from among the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.
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Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the procedure. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given at least one license per handled home.
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Because situation in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more commonly, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering manage market share, might possibly 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, however the language around the tally step would seem to favor the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were deceptive and the tens of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently spends billions on education annually.