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

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

Seven of the eight states bordering Missouri enable mobile or retail sportsbooks. That includes Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city locations with Missouri, respectively.

Missouri is the 39th state to approve legal sportsbooks and the 31st to green light statewide mobile sports betting. It is the only state to approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has a few of the best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared huge for their preferred teams on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, stated in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's professional sports betting franchises, we want to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by approving Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and ensures we no longer lose valuable tax profits to our surrounding states. Most significantly, the passage of Amendment 2 implies a brand-new, devoted, irreversible funding stream for Missouri class."

Missouri sports betting wagering next actions

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 financed almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will unquestionably apply to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses offered without having to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying fee).

Six licenses are offered 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 handles ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely introduce their respective books.

The other 3 operators are Boyd Gaming, Century Casino, and Affinity Interactive. It stays unclear if they will launch mobile sportsbooks.

The remaining six licenses are booked for each of the major professional sports betting teams 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 among the most popular advocates of the ballot measure.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors must expect other prominent national brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to look for market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
Likely: Fanatics, bet365, ESPN BET
Are Already Live In Illinois, So Yeah(?): BetRivers, Hard Rock, Circa
Opposed Referendum But Still Might: Caesars

Missouri's tally measure enables every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the six gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering alternatives such as wagering kiosks and potentially dedicated, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting groups can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective home playing places. 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 tally step requires the first licensed sportsbooks to start accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely deal with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, continually books' most financially rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The successful Missouri sports betting wagering campaign comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the procedure from one of the state's largest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent millions of dollars to beat the procedure. In most other states that connect online sports betting with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is granted a minimum of one license per managed property.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be paid for a minimum of three potential licenses, one for each casino it handles. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property design, companies can either open additional internal books or, more frequently, farm out the license to a rival that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. across the country sports betting handle market share, might potentially have a leg up on their rivals by earning the set of untethered licenses. It remains to be seen which 2 books will earn these slots, but the language around the tally measure would appear to prefer the 2 national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were boosted by tens of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the earnings legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, funded mostly by Caesars, argued the advocates' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a minimal effect in a state that currently spends billions on education annually.