Missouri citizens approved legal mobile and retail sports wagering, allowing regulated books to take bets next year.

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

Seven of the 8 states surrounding Missouri allow mobile or retail sportsbooks. That consists of Kansas and Illinois, which split the Kansas City and St. Louis city 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 authorize 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, said in a statement. "On behalf of all 6 of Missouri's expert sports betting franchises, we desire 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 earnings to our surrounding states. Most notably, the passage of Amendment 2 means a new, dedicated, permanent financing stream for Missouri classrooms."

Missouri sports betting wagering next steps

Voter approval means up to 14 mobile sportsbooks could begin accepting bets next year. It is unlikely all 14 available licenses are used.

DraftKings and FanDuel financed almost every dollar of the "yes" campaign and will certainly use 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 casino or sports betting team (and pay an accompanying charge).

Six licenses are available to each Missouri casino operator, respectively. Caesars, in spite of opposing the tally measure, will likely use its license to release the Caesars mobile sportsbook. Penn Entertainment, which manages ESPN Bet, and Bally's (Bally Bet) will also likely release their particular books.

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

The staying 6 licenses are booked for each of the major 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 companies were amongst the most prominent advocates of the ballot procedure.

Along with DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars, Missouri gamblers should expect other leading nationwide brands consisting of BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers and Fanatics to seek market access.

Launch likelihood tiers IF Missouri voters authorize sports betting wagering:

Guarantees: FanDuel, DraftKings
Locks: BetMGM, Bally Bet
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 measure permits every Missouri casino to open retail sportsbooks on their respective properties. Most if not all 13 casinos handled by the six gambling establishment operators are anticipated to open in-person wagering options such as sports betting kiosks and potentially committed, full-service sportsbooks.

The 6 sports betting groups can likewise open in-person sportsbooks within or surrounding to their respective home playing places. Missouri will join Illinois, Maryland, Arizona, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. among jurisdictions that allow in-stadium retail sportsbooks.

The language around the ballot step needs 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, perennially books' most rewarding time of the sports betting calendar.

Missouri sports betting background

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

Caesars invested millions of dollars to beat the measure. In most other states that connect online sports betting wagering with a state's brick-and-mortar casinos, an operator is given a minimum of one license per managed residential or commercial property.

Because circumstance in Missouri, Caesars would be afforded at least 3 potential 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 frequently, subcontract the license to a competitor that pays an accompanying charge in exchange.

FanDuel and DraftKings, which have approximately two-thirds of U.S. nationwide sports betting manage market share, could potentially have a leg up on their competitors by making the set of untethered licenses. It stays to be seen which 2 books will make these slots, however the language around the ballot measure would appear to favor the two national market leaders.

Polling earlier in the year showed the "yes" vote with a minor lead. Support efforts were bolstered 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 fans' ads were misleading and the tens of millions of forecasted dollars raised would have a negligible effect in a state that already spends billions on education each year.