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

The sports betting wagering ballot procedure gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday early morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.

Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to approve 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 some of the finest sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their preferred teams 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 desire to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, dedicated, irreversible financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies as much as 14 might start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly 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 casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying cost).
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Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch 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 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 popular advocates of the tally step.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers should expect other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

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

Missouri's tally step enables every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 casino operators are expected to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.

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

The language around the ballot measure 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting campaign comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the measure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
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Caesars spent countless dollars to defeat the step. 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 property.

Because scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open extra internal books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.
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FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering handle market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their rivals 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 measure would appear to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year showed 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 revenue legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the fans' ads were misleading and the 10s of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education every year.
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