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

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

Seven of the eight states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations 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 this year.

" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans in the world and they showed up huge for their favorite groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose important tax profits to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval means as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost 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 team (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally measure, 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 release their respective books.

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

The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the significant professional sports betting teams 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 advocates of the ballot measure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other leading national brand names consisting of 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
Highly likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's tally step allows every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as wagering kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their respective home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot measure needs the very first licensed sportsbooks to begin accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely work with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, continually books' most lucrative 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 step from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the step. In many other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per handled property.

In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional internal books or, more commonly, farm out 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 wagering manage market share, could possibly have a leg up on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, however the language around the tally measure would seem to prefer the two national market leaders.

Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were strengthened by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mostly by Caesars, argued the supporters' ads were deceptive and the tens of countless projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education every year.