Missouri’s sports betting remains positioned to pass after an analysis of official election results in the state’s most-populated counties shows the “yes” vote maintains a narrow lead.
Publicly available “official” election results posted earlier this week in the 50 most populated county or county equivalents show roughly 1,500 more “no” votes than the original reports from Election Day. That cuts the “yes” lead down to a few thousand votes, still enough to bring legal sports betting to Missouri.
Approval seemed in jeopardy earlier in the week when Christian County showed a net gain of nearly 4,000 “no” votes from its original Election Day report. This late vote reporting proved an abnormality; the other 49 most populated counties and cities showed “yes” gaining more than 2,500 votes.
Green counties supported sports betting, red counties opposed; all supporting counties were in the greater KC or St. Louis metros and/or bordered a state with legal sports betting; the exception is Boone (stand-alone green county in the middle) home to the University of Missouri pic.twitter.com/cdlztJaSFh
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) November 21, 2024
These more heavily populated jurisdictions account for roughly 2.5 million of the nearly 3 million votes cast by Missourians in the 2025 election. The remaining counties don’t project to have enough votes to switch results. In most counties analyzed by Covers, the final, official totals differed by only a few votes from the Election Night results.
State officials next month are set to approve the state constitutional amendment that permits sports betting in Missouri. The final, official total is expected to show “yes” ahead by a few thousand votes.
Missouri law allows parties involved in a ballot measure to request a recount if the final official vote total has a margin of less than 0.5%. Officials from Caesars, which funded the opposition campaign, have given no public indication they will pursue a recount, even though the final margin is expected to fall within that margin.
Missouri sports betting next steps
Following certification next month, Missouri gaming regulators will begin a process to license individual sportsbooks. This will include creating a catalog of approved sports, leagues and bet types. Each sportsbook will also need to pass independent lab certification.
Most of the 30 states with legal online sports betting have completed this process in between six to nine months. Based off a similar timeline, Missouri bettors won’t be able to wager on the upcoming Super Bowl or the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, but should be positioned to bet before the first NFL game of the 2025 season kicks off.
As many as a dozen sportsbooks are expected to go live by next year.
ESPN BET and Bally Bet both have access to licenses through their partnerships with land-based casino owners and are also expected to go live in the state.
BetMGM, BetRivers, and Underdog are among sportsbook operators that have publicly expressed interest in Missouri. Other national brands including bet365, Hard Rock, and Fanatics are also expected to apply for licensure. So, too, is Caesars, despite funding the opposition campaign.
Unlike neighboring Illinois, Missouri will allow bets on in-state college sports programs. The state will ban individual player props for college athletes such as points scored or yards recorded.
All 13 Missouri casinos will be able to open on-property, in-person sportsbooks. The state’s six major professional sports teams will also be able to open retail books within or adjacent to their respective home playing venues.
Missouri will be the 31st state to take a legal online sports wager and the 39th to take a legal online bet or in-person bet. Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri already permit sports betting, with Oklahoma the lone exception.
