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

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

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

" Missouri has some of the very best sports betting fans in the world and they appeared huge 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 desire to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax income to our surrounding states. Most importantly, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 readily available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" project and will certainly 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 casino or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their particular books.

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

The staying six licenses are scheduled for each of the major 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 companies were amongst the most prominent advocates of the ballot procedure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers should expect other leading national brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri citizens approve sports betting:

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

Missouri's tally procedure allows every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting options such as wagering kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective home playing places. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot procedure needs the first licensed sportsbooks to start 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting project comes regardless of millions in funding opposing the step from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent millions of dollars to defeat the measure. In many other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is approved a minimum of one license per managed residential or commercial property.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open extra internal books or, more typically, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

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

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

A series of tv and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mostly by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were deceptive and the 10s of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that already spends billions on education each year.