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

The sports betting tally step passed by a slim majority 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 includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro 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 wagering this year.
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" Missouri has some of the best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared big for their preferred 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 professional sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose important tax profits to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 means a new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.
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DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "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 available to each Missouri gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their respective books.

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

The remaining six licenses are booked 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 prominent supporters of the ballot step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other prominent national brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

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

Missouri's tally step allows every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the 6 casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting 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 particular home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
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The language around the ballot procedure requires the very first licensed sportsbooks to start 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.
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Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the step from among the state's largest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the measure. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is approved at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.
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In that situation in Missouri, Caesars would be managed a minimum of 3 potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open extra internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering deal with market share, could potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot step would seem to favor the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

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