Missouri citizens authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting, allowing 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 bordering Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which divided 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 wagering this year.

" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared big for their preferred groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert 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 and guarantees we no longer lose important tax earnings to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a brand-new, devoted, irreversible financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are used.

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

Six licenses are available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely release their respective books.

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

The remaining 6 licenses are scheduled 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 popular proponents of the ballot measure.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors ought to anticipate other leading national brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:

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

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

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

The language around the ballot step requires the first certified sportsbooks to start 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 rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting project comes despite millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.

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 approved a minimum of one license per handled residential or commercial property.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of 3 prospective 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, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will make these slots, but the language around the tally procedure would seem to favor the two national market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were deceptive and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education every year.