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

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

Seven of the 8 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 a few of the very best sports betting fans in the world and they appeared big for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a declaration. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert 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 legalize sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 suggests a new, devoted, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval suggests as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 offered licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed nearly 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 offered without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot procedure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages 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 introduce mobile sportsbooks.

The staying six licenses are reserved for each of the major expert sports betting groups 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 companies were amongst the most prominent supporters of the ballot measure.

In addition to DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers should expect other leading nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting:

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

Missouri's ballot step permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments managed by the six gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as sports betting kiosks and possibly dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting teams 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 allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot measure needs the first certified 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, continually books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The effective Missouri sports betting wagering project comes regardless of millions in financing opposing the step from one of the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the measure. In the majority of other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is granted at least one license per handled home.

In that circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for at least 3 potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more frequently, farm out 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 handle 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 seem to favor the two nationwide market leaders.

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

A series of television and radio ads focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mainly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were deceptive and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education each year.