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

The sports betting wagering ballot measure passed 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 includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided 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 sports betting. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has a few of the finest sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up big for their preferred groups 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 want to thank the Missouri voters 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 valuable tax revenue to our neighboring states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a brand-new, dedicated, permanent financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies up to 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are used.

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

Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally step, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.

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

The staying 6 licenses are scheduled 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 organizations were amongst the most prominent supporters of the ballot measure.

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

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:

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

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

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

The language around the tally step requires 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, perennially books' most financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

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

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat 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 given at least one license per managed home.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open additional in-house books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting manage market share, could possibly have a leg up on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, however the language around the tally step would seem to prefer the 2 national market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the earnings legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mostly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already spends billions on education annually.