It won’t be live in time for the start of football season, but Missouri sports betting will launch on Dec. 1, the state’s gaming commission announced late last week.
Missouri is set to become the 39th state where sports betting is legal.
With college football kicking off in late August and the NFL season starting on Thursday, Sept. 4 with the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles, industry stakeholders were hoping for an earlier launch date.
The home-state Kansas City Chiefs take on their division rival LA Chargers in Brazil on Friday, Sept. 5, a game that would have drawn huge handle at Missouri sportsbooks.
Missourians will also not be able to bet legally on this year’s MLB Playoffs or World Series.
The Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) pushed for emergency rules to be passed so that sports betting could launch in time for football season, but the effort was stymied by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, an opponent of sports betting legalization.
A Dec. 1 date, though, means the industry will be live in time for the College Football Playoff, the last five weeks of the NFL regular season, the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl LX, and Missouri promises to be a robust sports betting market long term.
Missouri’s sports betting landscape
A total of 21 entities could be granted sports betting licenses in Missouri.
Each of the state’s 13 casinos and six professional sports teams are allowed an online wagering license, and two online licenses not tethered to those entities are also up for grabs. The casinos and teams may also open retail sportsbooks at their locations.
Sportsbook companies can gain access to the Missouri market via agreements with the casinos and teams.
One such deal is already done. In March, the St. Louis Cardinals announced a partnership with Bet365 that includes sponsorship rights, in addition to market access, for the sportsbook.
The Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Blues, Sporting Kansas City, and Kansas City Current are all eligible to enter similar arrangements with sports betting operators.
Missourians can expect the other big-name national sportsbooks, such as FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM, to join Bet365 in offering online wagering in the state.
Online sports betting licenses cost $500,000 apiece, and retail licenses go for $250,000.
The application period for all licenses opened last week, on Thursday, May 15, according to the MGC website. Applications for the two untethered direct mobile licenses are due July 15.
Missouri sports betting and tax revenue
While population is just one key factor in projecting the size of a state’s sports betting market, Maryland and Indiana are useful comparisons when it comes to estimating what the industry could look like in the Show-Me State.
Maryland and Missouri both have populations of around 6.2 million. Indiana’s 6.9 million is slightly larger.
In 2024, Maryland sportsbooks wrote about $5.9 billion in bets and held $635.7 million of that. Sports wagering drove $82.3 million in tax revenue for Maryland last year.
Handle at Indiana sportsbooks was $5.2 billion in 2024, resulting in $484.9 million of revenue for sportsbooks and at a 9.3% tax rate, $46.2 million for the state.
Missouri will tax sportsbooks 10% of revenue, so if industry estimates of $500 million in hold prove accurate, the state is looking at around $50 million annually in its coffers.
The tax revenue is earmarked for education, compulsive gaming prevention, and expenses related to operation and administration of the state’s sports betting industry.
