Missouri has become the latest state to offer legal sports betting, and there are plenty of potential implications from this addition to the country’s regulated framework.
The Show Me State became the 39th state, along with the District of Columbia, to allow sports betting, bringing in the sports-mad Kansas City and St. Louis markets into the industry. Previously, consumers from those states needed to travel to neighboring locales such as Kansas and Illinois to place bets. Missouri voters narrowly approved sports betting in a November 2024 ballot measure, boosted in part by a hefty push from the state’s pro teams.
Aside from California and Texas, the country’s two most populous states and longtime problem areas for sports betting advocates, Missouri had been one of the largest remaining states without legalization.
The Missouri sports betting rules will include a general allowance of proposition bets, so long as they don’t involve a college or university located in the state. Prop bets, however, have been at the center of recent betting scandals in Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and in college sports.
MLB’s recently imposed limits on pitch-level prop bets will also apply to Missouri, but broadly, the permitting of the activity there contrasts sharply against recently conveyed regrets from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine about sports betting overall. Amid the recent federal indictment of two Guardians pitchers, DeWine recently told the Associated Press about sports betting, “Ohio shouldn’t have done it.”
Missouri, however, will see the simultaneous arrival of market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, along with BetMGM, Caesars, Fanatics, Bet365, Circa Sports, and theScore—creating one of the more immediately competitive markets among recent state rollouts. The arrival of theScore in Missouri is also one of the first major moves for Penn Entertainment in partnership with that brand since its recent separation from ESPN.
Stadium Funds?
Meanwhile, the arrival of Missouri sports betting potential intersects with the stadium deliberations of both the MLB Royals and NFL Chiefs. The Royals definitely want to leave Kauffman Stadium for a new facility, while the Chiefs have a broader deliberation that includes possibly renovating the existing Arrowhead Stadium or leaving for a new, domed facility in either Missouri or Kansas.
Currently, the Missouri sports betting funds are primarily earmarked for education. Neighboring Kansas, however, has used more than $26 million of its sports betting tax revenue to pursue pro teams to the state, and it will bear close watching whether Missouri will make a budgetary pivot as the Chiefs and Royals draw closer to making their venue decisions.
