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

The sports betting wagering ballot measure gone by a slim bulk 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 authorize legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile sports betting. It is the only state to authorize sports betting this year.

" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans on the planet and they appeared huge for their favorite 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 voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting and ensures we no longer lose important tax earnings to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a brand-new, dedicated, permanent financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

Voter approval suggests approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally step, will likely utilize its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.

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

The staying six licenses are booked for each of the major professional 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 companies were amongst the most popular supporters of the tally measure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors should expect other leading national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters authorize 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 allows every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular residential or commercial properties. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting options such as sports betting kiosks and possibly committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that permit in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot step needs the very first licensed 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, perennially books' most rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting project comes regardless of millions in funding opposing the procedure from among the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the procedure. In most other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given at least one license per handled residential or commercial property.

Because scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open additional internal books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a rival that pays an accompanying cost in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting wagering deal with market share, might potentially have an upper hand on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of tv and radio ads concentrated on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the supporters' ads were deceptive and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that currently spends billions on education each year.