Missouri’s sports betting approval is reportedly down to a few hundred votes as potential future stakeholders await final certification.
A late-reporting batch of Missouri votes cut the “yes” tally for sports betting approval down to just a lead of a few hundred votes. Several hundred potential votes remain outstanding, but it’s projected those won’t be enough to sway the vote. Most remaining uncounted ballots would come from the state’s more heavily populated counties, the majority of which voted to approve legal sports betting.
The Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas gave the measure its greatest support. Opposition was strongest in the state’s rural counties.
The Missouri Independent was the first to report the most recent vote total.
The Missouri Secretary of State’s office had not updated the ballot count on its website as of Tuesday afternoon. The unofficial tally shows “yes” up by 4,360 votes out of nearly three million ballots counted.
What comes next
The narrowing margin could mean the ballot measure remains eligible for a recount. Missouri law allows – but does not require – recounts if a vote margin is below 0.5%.
The unofficial results posted Tuesday show “yes” up 50.074% to 49.926%, a margin of 0.148%.
Missouri law requires an affected party to call for a recount. The most likely challenger would be the Caesars-funded political action committee that raised $14 million to oppose the measure.
Missouri's sports betting ballot measure vote totals continue to narrow; if it falls within a permitted recount threshold and "yes" is still up, I don't expect the "no" camp to challenge; if, in the unlikely event it flips to "no", I would expect supporters to push a recount
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) November 19, 2024
Representatives from Caesars and the affiliated committee have given no indication they’ll call for a recount. Caesars will be able to launch its mobile sportsbook in the state if the vote holds. It can also open retail books at each of its three Missouri casino properties.
In the seemingly unlikely instance where the vote total falls to the point that “no” is ahead, the group behind the ballot measure would seem far more likely to call for a recount. DraftKings and FanDuel contributed nearly $40 million to bring legal sports betting to the state.
An X message sent to a spokesperson for the group behind the “yes” campaign did not respond at the time of publication.
Recounts seldom change vote outcomes in Missouri or any other state, but it remains a tool if the already razor-thin vote differential continues to narrow.
Potential Missouri sports betting future
Should the “yes” votes exceed the “no” votes – even if by a single tally – Missouri will see its first legal online and retail sportsbooks sometime next year.
Regulators will have to create a set of sports betting rules, including a betting catalog. Each book will also have to be tested independently before it can accept wagers. This process has taken between six to nine months in most of the other 30 states with legal online sports betting.
Legal Missouri sports betting will be unlikely before the upcoming Super Bowl. A launch before the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is more plausible but still improbable.
Instead, bettors should look to a go-live date in summer 2025, sometime before the NFL and NCAA football seasons kick off.
DraftKings and FanDuel will be expected to earn licensure. Other major national brands including BetMGM, Fanatics, BetRivers, as well as Caesars will also likely enter the state. Underdog, which only has its sports gambling product in North Carolina, has also expressed interest in the state.
Most of the books will allow bettors to wager with the same platform in existing legal sports betting states including Illinois and Kansas should Missouri sports betting be approved to go live. Eligible bettors are able to place bets in regulated sports states when they are physically located inside of them; a bettor’s residence does not impact their ability to place bets.
This means an Illinois resident could place bets in Missouri when they are in the state, for example. Missouri residents are already doing this frequently in both Kansas as well as Illinois.
The state’s six major professional sports stadiums would also be able to open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective venues. Each of Missouri’s 13 casinos could also open retail books.
In the unlikely event certified vote totals reject this measure, Missouri sports bettors will have no legal betting options in 2025 and potentially for years to come.
