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

The sports betting wagering tally step gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday early 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 divided the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to approve 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 in the world and they appeared big for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical 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 implies a brand-new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next actions

Voter approval implies up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.

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

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

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

The staying 6 licenses are booked 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 popular advocates of the tally step.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors need to anticipate other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Very 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 measure enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person wagering alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing places. 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 requires the 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting project comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the procedure from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted at least one license per handled home.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be managed at least 3 potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering handle market share, could possibly have a leg up on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, however the language around the tally procedure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were reinforced by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were misleading and the 10s of countless forecasted dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that already spends billions on education every year.