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

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

Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split 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 wagering. It is the only state to authorize sports betting wagering this year.

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they revealed up huge for their favorite teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "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 authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our neighboring states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 means a brand-new, dedicated, irreversible financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

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

DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" project and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses 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 offered to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally measure, will likely utilize its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their respective books.

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

The staying six 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 companies were amongst the most prominent proponents of the ballot measure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors should anticipate other leading nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri citizens authorize sports betting wagering:

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

Missouri's tally measure enables 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 sports betting options such as wagering kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular 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 procedure requires the very first certified 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, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the step from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the step. 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.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded a minimum of three prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional 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. across the country sports betting deal with market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to favor the two national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were boosted by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a minimal impact in a state that already invests billions on education every year.