bet365 is poised to start taking bets in Missouri later this year after the sportsbook announced a partnership with MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals.
The partnership gives bet365 access to a Missouri sports betting license. The deal also makes UK-based bet365 the Cardinals’ “official sports betting partner” and will include advertising within the Cardinals’ home stadium and on its broadcasts, per a release announcing the deal Monday.
Missouri’s first mobile sportsbooks are expected to accept bets after the 2025 MLB regular season ends, likely October or November. Missouri law requires the first books to be operational by Dec. 1, 2025.
Missouri Sportsbook total grows
bet365’s pending launch adds to a list of roughly a dozen sportsbooks that have or are expected to have interest in a Missouri launch.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which combined contributed nearly $30 million to the campaign that ultimately brought legal sports betting to Missouri, have both announced plans to go live in the state. BetMGM, which has a prior deal with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and already advertises during games at Arrowhead Stadium, is also expected to enter the state.
Other brands including BetRivers and Underdog have also expressed interest in a Missouri sports betting launch.
The 2024 ballot measure that changed Missouri’s constitution to permit mobile and retail sportsbooks allowed the state’s six professional sports teams as well as its casino to strike partnerships with third-party mobile and retail sportsbooks. Each casino can open an in-property sportsbook, while the six professional teams can offer books managed by their sports betting partners within or near their respective stadiums.
bet365 is set to enter Missouri after today's partnership announcement with the St. Louis Cardinals; expected mobile launch for bet365 (and all other Missouri mobile books) will likely come after the end of the 2025 MLB regular season
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) March 24, 2025
The Cardinals did not mention a retail book in Monday’s press release but will presumably work with bet365 should the team look to open a book within Busch Stadium or the adjacent Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis.
Missouri gaming regulators are awaiting further clarification from the state’s Attorney General’s office on whether the language in the authorizing ballot measure allows all 13 casinos to partner with a sportsbook brand individually or if that limit is restricted to the six companies that manage the properties.
Should officials determine that all 13 casino properties have partnership rights, that would allow up to 21 mobile sportsbooks in the state: six for the teams, 13 for the casinos, and two additional licenses that would not require a partnership with a Missouri business. If the ruling is limited to just the six casino operators, Missouri would only have the option for 14 potential books.
Among the half-dozen casino operators are Caesars, PENN Entertainment, and Bally’s, all of which would be able to open their affiliated mobile sportsbook brands. Caesars operates three Missouri properties, the most of any company, and funded a campaign to stop the ballot measure.
Missouri is latest bet365 target market
Missouri represents another step in bet365’s unusually methodical state-by-state U.S. expansion.
Unlike its U.S.-centric competitors, bet365 has started taking bets in multiple new markets months after the jurisdictions’ official “go live” date. The company has multiple branding partnerships with pro sports teams, including the Cardinals, that feature signage within stadiums but it has spent just a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising many other U.S. sportsbooks have paid in recent years to acquire customers.
bet365 has seen increasing market share in multiple states despite this approach. The operator has been lauded by gaming industry officials, and sports bettors, on both sides of the Atlantic for its in-house tech platform and wide range of pre-game and live betting options.
Missouri’s pending launch announcement comes days after bet365 started taking bets in neighboring Illinois. bet365 is accepting wagers in 13 states out of the 30 that allow mobile wagering.
Along with Illinois, bet365’s mobile book is live in Missouri neighbors Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
