Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Measure Approved By Voters
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Missouri voters authorized legal mobile and retail sports betting wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.
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The sports betting wagering tally procedure gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
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Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city areas with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile sports betting. It is the only state to approve sports betting wagering this year.
" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared big for their favorite groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri citizens who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 means a new, devoted, permanent funding stream for Missouri classrooms."
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval suggests 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 financed nearly every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly 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 team (and pay an accompanying charge).
Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch their respective books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will launch mobile .
The remaining 6 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 companies were among the most popular advocates of the tally measure.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri wagerers need to anticipate other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.
Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri citizens approve 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 procedure allows every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six casino operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering choices such as sports betting kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.
The 6 sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or nearby to their particular home playing locations. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot procedure requires the very first certified 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, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The successful Missouri sports betting project comes in spite of millions in financing opposing the measure from one of the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the procedure. In the majority of other states that tie online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is given a minimum of one license per handled home.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 3 prospective licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional internal books or, more typically, farm out 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 handle market share, could potentially have a leg up on their rivals by making the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the ballot procedure would seem to prefer the two nationwide market leaders.
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Polling previously in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were boosted by 10s of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio ads focused on the income legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were deceptive and the tens of countless projected dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that already invests billions on education each year.
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