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

The sports betting tally procedure gone by a slim bulk 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 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 this year.

" Missouri has some of the best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared big for their preferred groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we desire to thank the Missouri voters 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 valuable tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

Voter approval means approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost 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 readily available without needing 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 gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the ballot measure, 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 release their particular books.

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

The staying six licenses are scheduled for each of the major 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 among the most prominent supporters of the ballot measure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers must anticipate other leading national brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:

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

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

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

The language around the tally procedure needs the first licensed 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 project comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the measure. In most other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per handled property.

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

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering deal with market share, might potentially have a leg up on their rivals by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, but the language around the ballot procedure would appear to prefer the 2 national market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were deceptive and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that already spends billions on education yearly.