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

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

Seven of the 8 states surrounding 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 approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. 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 big for their preferred groups 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 wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and ensures we no longer lose important tax revenue to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a new, devoted, long-term funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval means as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might 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" campaign and will unquestionably use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without needing 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 gambling establishment operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the tally step, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely release their particular books.

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

The remaining six licenses are scheduled for each of the major expert sports betting groups 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 amongst the most popular proponents of the tally measure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other prominent nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting:

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

Missouri's ballot procedure permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective homes. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering alternatives such as wagering kiosks and possibly devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing locations. 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 tally procedure 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 financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested millions of dollars to defeat the step. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per managed home.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least three possible licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering deal with market share, could potentially have a leg up on their competitors by earning the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio advertisements concentrated on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were deceptive and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that already spends billions on education annually.