Missouri voters approved legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, permitting regulated books to take bets next year.

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

Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri enable 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 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 some of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they revealed up huge for their favorite 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 want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose important tax income to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports wagering next actions

Voter approval suggests as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are used.

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

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally procedure, 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 introduce their respective books.

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

The remaining 6 licenses are reserved for each of the significant expert sports betting teams that play home video 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 procedure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers need to expect other leading national brand names including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting wagering:

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

Missouri's ballot measure permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the 6 gambling establishment operators are expected to open in-person sports betting choices such as wagering kiosks and potentially devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot step needs the first certified 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 successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the measure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the procedure. In many other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per managed residential or commercial property.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least three possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property design, business can either open extra in-house books or, more frequently, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering manage market share, might possibly have a leg up on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, however the language around the ballot step 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 boosted by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the supporters' ads were deceptive and the 10s of countless predicted dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that currently invests billions on education yearly.