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

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

Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri permit 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 wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they showed up huge 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 expert 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 ensures we no longer lose valuable tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval indicates as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying cost).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally procedure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles 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 uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.

The staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the major 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 amongst the most prominent proponents of the tally procedure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other prominent nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting:

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 measure enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting choices such as wagering kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.

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

The language around the ballot step 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, continually books' most financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering project comes in spite of 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 most other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given at least one license per handled home.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra in-house books or, more typically, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting handle market share, might possibly have a leg up on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot step would appear to favor the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed largely by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently spends billions on education annually.