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

The sports betting wagering tally step gone by a slim bulk early Wednesday early 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 divided 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 sports betting. It is the only state to approve sports betting this year.

" Missouri has a few of the very best sports betting fans worldwide and they appeared huge for their preferred groups on Election Day," Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement. "On behalf of all six of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we desire to thank the Missouri voters who made their voices heard by authorizing Amendment 2. This historic vote makes Missouri the 39th state to legislate sports betting wagering and guarantees we no longer lose important tax income to our neighboring states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 indicates a new, dedicated, long-term financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval implies approximately 14 mobile sportsbooks might begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are utilized.

DraftKings and FanDuel funded nearly every dollar of the "yes" project and will unquestionably use to take bets in the Show Me State. They will likely each pursue the 2 "untethered" licenses available without needing to partner with a Missouri brick-and-mortar gambling establishment or sports betting group (and pay an accompanying charge).

Six licenses are offered to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, regardless of opposing the tally step, will likely use its license to introduce the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will likewise likely launch their respective books.

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

The remaining six licenses are reserved for each of the significant expert 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 prominent supporters of the tally step.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri bettors must anticipate other leading nationwide brands including BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market gain access to.

Launch possibility tiers IF Missouri voters approve sports betting wagering:

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

Missouri's tally procedure permits every Missouri gambling establishment to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 gambling establishments handled by the 6 gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person sports betting choices such as wagering kiosks and possibly devoted, full-service sportsbooks.

The six sports betting teams can also open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their particular 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 very first licensed sportsbooks to begin accepting wagers by Dec. 1, 2025. Operators will likely deal with regulators to go live before kick-off of the fall 2025 football season, perennially books' most lucrative time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

The successful Missouri sports betting project comes in spite of millions in funding opposing the step from among the state's biggest gambling stakeholders.

Caesars spent countless dollars to beat the measure. In a lot of other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar gambling establishments, an operator is approved at least one license per handled home.

In that scenario in Missouri, Caesars would be managed a minimum of 3 possible licenses, one for each gambling establishment it manages. Instead, Caesars only has one. In states with the license-per-property model, business can either open extra in-house books or, more typically, subcontract the license to a competitor 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, could potentially have a leg up on their competitors by earning the pair of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which two books will make these slots, however the language around the tally procedure would appear to prefer the 2 nationwide market leaders.

Polling previously in the year revealed the "yes" vote with a small lead. Support efforts were strengthened by 10s of millions invested by DraftKings and FanDuel.

A series of tv and radio advertisements focused on the revenue legal sportsbooks would produce for Missouri public education. Opponents, moneyed mostly by Caesars, argued the advocates' advertisements were misleading and the tens of millions of predicted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already invests billions on education each year.