Missouri voters approved legal mobile and retail sports betting, permitting regulated books to take bets next year.
The sports betting ballot measure passed by a slim majority early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.
Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas with Missouri, respectively.
Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile wagering. It is the only state to approve sports betting this year.
Missouri sports betting next steps
Voter approval means up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are used.
DraftKings and FanDuel financed nearly every dollar of the “yes” campaign and will undoubtedly apply 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 team (and pay an accompanying fee).
Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, despite opposing the ballot measure, will likely use its license to launch the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally’s (Bally Bet) will also likely launch their respective books.
The other three operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It remains unclear if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.
The remaining six licenses are reserved for each of the major professional sports teams that play home games in Missouri: MLB’s Kansas City Royals and St. Louis 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 organizations were among the most prominent proponents of the ballot measure.
Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors should expect other leading national brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.
Launch probability tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting:
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) October 24, 2024
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 ballot measure allows every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 casinos managed by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person betting options such as wagering kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.
The six sports teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing venues. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.
The language around the ballot measure requires the 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 lucrative time of the sports calendar.
Missouri sports betting background
The successful Missouri sports betting campaign comes despite millions in funding opposing the measure from one of the state’s largest gambling stakeholders.
Caesars spent millions of dollars to defeat the measure. In most other states that tie online sports betting with a state’s brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted at least one license per managed property.
In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded at least three potential licenses, one for each casino it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, companies can either open additional in-house books or, more commonly, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which have roughly two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting handle 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 earn these slots, but the language around the ballot measure would seem to favor the two national market leaders.
Polling earlier in the year showed the “yes” vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were bolstered by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.
A series of television and radio ads focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would generate for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded largely by Caesars, argued the supporters’ ads were misleading and the tens of millions of projected dollars raised would have a negligible impact in a state that already spends billions on education annually.
