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

The sports betting wagering ballot procedure gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday morning after more than 2.9 million votes were counted.

Seven of the 8 states bordering Missouri permit mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis metro locations 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 approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has some of the finest sports betting fans worldwide and they showed up 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 professional sports betting franchises, we wish to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historical vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting and guarantees we no longer lose important tax profits to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, dedicated, permanent financing stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting next steps

Voter approval means as much as 14 mobile sportsbooks could start accepting bets next year. It is not likely all 14 readily available licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will undoubtedly use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the two "untethered" licenses readily available without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are readily available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the ballot measure, will likely utilize its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which handles 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 stays uncertain if they will introduce mobile sportsbooks.

The remaining 6 licenses are booked for each of the significant professional sports betting groups that play home video 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 organizations were amongst the most popular proponents of the ballot measure.

Together with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers ought to anticipate other leading nationwide brand names consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market access.

Launch possibility 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, Acid Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's tally procedure permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their particular homes. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six casino operators are expected to open in-person sports betting alternatives such as wagering kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or adjacent to their respective home playing locations. Missouri will sign up with Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. amongst jurisdictions that enable in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot step needs 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 profitable time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting wagering background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering project comes despite millions in funding opposing the measure from among the state's biggest sports betting stakeholders.

Caesars invested countless dollars to defeat the step. In many other states that tie online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given at least one license per managed property.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars just has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open additional internal books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying fee in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting wagering deal with market share, could possibly have an upper hand on their rivals by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally step would seem to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a slight lead. Support efforts were boosted by tens of millions spent by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of television and radio advertisements focused on the profits legal sportsbooks would create for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed largely by Caesars, argued the fans' advertisements were deceptive and the tens of countless projected dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently spends billions on education yearly.