Missouri Sports Betting: 2025 Launch & Expected Missouri Sportsbooks

The Missouri Gaming Commission is accepting applications for sports betting licenses through Sept. 12, 2025. MGC Chairman Jan Zimmerman confirmed to Gambling.com that sports betting will go live in the state on Dec. 1, 2025. 

In the spring of 2025, the MGC tried to expedite the launch through emergency legislative powers. However, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a critic of Missouri sports betting since he was a state senator, rejected that emergency statute, arguing it didn't meet the appropriate criteria. So, the regulatory process was pushed back several months.

The first licenses to be awarded will be untethered direct mobile licenses, which are not tied to any retail casino or pro team. Fanatics, FanDuel, DraftKings, and Circa Sports have applied for one of the two untethered licenses. The commission will announce those license holders on Aug. 15. 

The rest of the retail and mobile applications will be decided in September.

There are up to 21 possible licenses allowed under Amendment 2, and there are three different types of licenses available:

• Casino: Missouri has 13 brick-and-mortar casinos; each can apply for one license.
• Professional Sports Teams: There are six pro sports teams with stadiums in Missouri (Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Current, St. Louis City SC), and each of them can partner with one operator for a license. The St. Louis Battlehawks of the UFL are potentially eligible to apply for a permit under these stipulations.
• Untethered: Two mobile-only licenses that don't require a partnership will be available.

Retail license fees cost $250K, while mobile licenses are $500K.

Through its application process, the Missouri Gaming Commission will award licenses all at once, not on a rolling basis. 

Sportsbooks will be taxed at 10%.

Proponents estimate that Missouri sports betting will generate $3.4 billion in handle in its first year of operation, $47.5 million in taxable revenue, and $4.7 million in taxes. 

However, the state estimates it could generate between $0 and $28.9 million in tax revenue annually. Because the proposal allows for deductions against revenues, sportsbooks can write off losses taken on promotional spending up to 25%.

These estimates have been the subject of much debate, as some, like the Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Agreement, argue that revenue estimates cannot be accurate and will fall short of projections.

• Dec. 1, 2025: Missouri sports betting launches.
• Sept. 12, 2025: All other retail and mobile license applications are due.
• Aug. 15, 2025: The Missouri Gaming Commission announces direct mobile license holders.
• Aug. 13, 2025: Direct mobile license applicants can present their cases to the commission.
• Aug. 5, 2025: Fanatics applies for a Missouri sports betting license.
• July 16, 2025: The MCG unanimously approves giving the commission's executive director the ability to issue temporary sports betting licenses.
• July 15, 2025: DraftKings, FanDuel, and Circa beat the deadline for one of two untethered sports betting licenses, the MGC tells Gambling.com.
• July 11, 2025: FanDuel applies for an untethered online sports betting license.
• June 11, 2025: The Missouri Gaming Commission receives its first two online betting license applications—DraftKings and Underdog.
• May 27, 2025: Century Casino & Hotel Cape Girardeau announces an agreement with BetMGM to bring the platform to Missouri.
• May 15, 2025: The Missouri Gaming Commission confirms that sports betting won't go live before Dec. 1, 2025. The application period for all licenses officially opens.
• May 7, 2025: Per Flutter's first-quarter earnings call, FanDuel is targeting a Q4 Missouri sports betting launch.
• April 23, 2025: The commission delivers proposed sports betting rules to the governor's office. Rules are expected to be approved at the commission's May meeting.
• April 16, 2025: No one from the general public participated in a month-long period to comment on the upcoming launch of sports betting in Missouri.
• March 26, 2025: BetMGM confirms it will pursue a Missouri sports betting license, though it may not be through the sportsbook's existing relationship with the Chiefs.
• March 24, 2025: The St. Louis Cardinals and bet365 announce a multi-year marketing partnership.
• March 18, 2025: Underdog Fantasy confirms it will pursue a sports betting license in Missouri.
• Feb. 21, 2025: Current Secretary of State and former state senator Hoskins denies the Gaming Commission's request for emergency sports betting regulations, delaying the projected June 2025 start date.
• Nov. 25, 2024: Rush Street CEO Richard Schwartz says the company is preparing for Missouri's sports betting launch. Rush Street Interactive is the parent company of BetRivers.

Because of existing relationships, we can project the operators that will come to Missouri. At present, you can legally wager at over a dozen licensed casinos. Some companies that own casinos in Missouri also own sports betting platforms.

You can place bets through mobile Missouri betting apps as soon as legal online sports betting is launched.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for FanDuel: 9.1/10

FanDuel Missouri applied for an untethered mobile license before the July 15 deadline. 

According to 2025 financial forecasts, FanDuel has been planning a Missouri launch for the last few months. FanDuel contributed millions of dollars to the Winning for Missouri Education political action committee to get sports betting on the 2024 ballot. 

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for DraftKings: 8.9/10

DraftKings has applied for an online sports betting license, per the MGC. In 2024, DraftKings contributed millions to the Winning for Missouri Education PAC.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for bet365: 8.9/10

In March 2025, bet365 Missouri was announced as a sports betting partner of the St. Louis Cardinals, granting the sportsbook de facto access to Missouri's market.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for BetMGM: 8.6/10

BetMGM Missouri will be partnering with Century Casino & Hotel in Cape Girardeau for Missouri market access.

The team has supported legalized sports betting in Missouri and has had a marketing deal with the Chiefs. Team president Mark Donovan signed a full-page ad in the Kansas City Star urging voters to approve the ballot initiative.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for ESPN BET: 8.2/10

PENN Entertainment expects to launch the ESPN BET sportsbook in Missouri this year. The company already operates several retail casinos in the state, which could give it easier access to the sports betting market.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for ESPN BET: 8.15/10

Fanatics Sportsbook has officially submitted a Missouri sports betting license application. 

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for BetRivers: 8.0/10

Rush Street Interactive CEO Richard Schwartz hinted at it. While speaking at the fourth annual Needham Consumer Tech and Ecommerce Conference, Schwartz said the company, which owns the BetRivers Sportsbook product, is preparing for the launch of Missouri sports betting.

In February 2022, Schwartz announced that RSI had preemptively gained market access in Ohio, Maryland, and Missouri through a deal with Penn National, so we'll have to see if that agreement still holds three years later.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for DraftKings: 7.1/10

Caesars Entertainment owns several casinos in Missouri already, including Isle of Capri Boonville Casino and Horseshoe St. Louis. It would make sense for Caesars Sportsbook Missouri to launch an online sportsbook here. It remains to be seen what kind of impact Caesars' support for the Winning for Missouri education’s opposition campaign will have.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for Underdog: Not yet available

Underdog has applied for an online sports betting license, per the MGC. We're still trying to find out who Underdog's prospective partner would be. An Underdog Fantasy rep had previously confirmed the company would apply. 

Founder and CEO Jeremy Levine has not been shy about Underdog's sports betting expansion goals, so we could see this fantasy provider come to the Show Me State.

Our Gambling.com Overall Score for Bally Bet: Not yet available

Bally Bet is the online sportsbook arm of the Bally's Corporation, which operates the Bally's Kansas City Casino. Brick-and-mortar casinos are expected to be awarded licenses to partner with online sports betting licenses, which could give Bally Bet de facto market access.

Bally Bet already operates in several states, including nearby Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The state constitution of Missouri previously only made provisions for pari-mutuel horse racing betting. Amendment 2 was introduced to change the constitution to allow online and retail sports betting. 

The amendment directs the Missouri Gaming Commission to oversee sports betting in the state and requires it to go live by Dec. 1, 2025, at the latest. The amendment sets the tax rate on sports betting operators at 10%, funding public education and compulsive gambling prevention.

The amendment notably does not include any language regulating Video Lottery Terminals, which had long been a sticking point for Hoskins. Instead, it allows one "skin" (or mobile license) per operator.

Allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to regulate licensed sports wagering including online sports betting, gambling boats, professional sports betting districts, and mobile licenses to sports betting operators

The road to legal sports betting in Missouri has been a long one. A key issue was whether video gaming terminals (VGTs), or video lottery terminals (VLTs), should be legalized alongside sports betting. Casinos oppose VGTs because they argue they function like slot machines without adhering to gaming regulations, and getting Missouri casinos to support a sports betting proposal is crucial.

Former state senator and current Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has been at the center of it all, including the recent events of 2024 and 2025.

2024

In January, organizers filed paperwork with the Missouri Ethics Commission to form the Winning for Missouri Education PAC. By April, the PAC had accumulated over 340,000 signatures (they were only required to get 180,000 to present to the secretary of state's office) to add a constitutional amendment to the 2024 state ballot to legalize sports betting.

In August, then-Secretary of State John Ashcroft declared the sports betting initiative had sufficient signatures to appear on the ballot. 

However, a Cole County Circuit Court lawsuit was filed to block the initiative from the November ballot, alleging that the petition was unconstitutional. To make the ballot in Missouri, proposal petitions must receive signatures from 8% of legal voters in six congressional districts. The suit argued that the proposal didn’t use newly redrawn districts following the 2020 U.S. Census, so it did not meet the required number of signatures. The lawsuit was dismissed in September.

In the lead-up to Election Day, Winning for Missouri Education gained bipartisan support in the state senate and endorsements from the Kansas City Star and St. Louis Dispatch. The amendment also had strong backing from Missouri's professional sports teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals, and Sporting KC.

Amendment 2 passed with 50.12% of the vote in favor. Amendment 5, which would have authorized a new casino in the Lake of the Ozarks, failed, with 52.5% opposing the measure.

Per the Missouri Ethics Commission, Winning for Missouri Education received $43.05 million in contributions, which set a record for campaign fundraising. FanDuel and DraftKings contributed $20.525 million each, and Missouri's six pro sports teams contributed just under $2M.

2023

In early February, the House Emerging Issues Committee heard HB 556, which included familiar language: a 10% tax rate, a deduction on promotional costs, rights to major sports teams to control sportsbook advertising around their stadiums, three skins per casino, and one per sports team.

Later that month, the Senate Appropriations Committee heard testimony on three bills: SB 30, which would legalize online sports betting; SB 192, which would legalize VGTs; and SB 1 (filed by Hoskins), which would allow both. All three bills included sports betting provisions similar to the House bills.

Hoskins again staged a filibuster after the Appropriations Committee, of which he was a member, failed SB 1 in a 10-2 vote. 

In March, the House passed HB 556 118-35, and it was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, no hearings or further readings were scheduled in the Senate, so the bill died at the end of the legislative session.

2022

A coalition that includes Missouri's pro sports teams, land-based casinos, and national operators got momentum behind HB 2502. The bill included a 10% tax rate on sportsbooks, a deduction on welcome offer promotional costs, rights to major sports teams to control sportsbook advertising around their stadiums, three skins per casino, and one license per sports team.

Tax revenue would go towards state education programs and casino host cities.

It was approved and amended by several House committees, but faced roadblocks in the Senate. In April, Hoskins led a filibuster for nearly four hours to delay a vote on the Senate floor because the proposals did not include provisions for VLTs. 

After blocking the bill, Hoskins agreed to craft new legislation that included a higher 15% tax rate and a $1.25 million annual fee per platform, excluding VGTs. That latest version, however, faced scrutiny from Sen. Bill White, who questioned the actual economic impact of sports betting. In response, Hoskins withdrew the new bill.  

Stakeholders reportedly disagreed on application fees and casino buy-in, among other issues. The legislative session ended with no action on a sports betting bill.

During this session, some lawmakers started to discuss a constitutional or electoral solution to the sports betting issue in Missouri. 

2021

At the start of the 2021 legislative session, some measures were introduced to legalize sports betting in person and online: SB 18 and SB 256. Hoskins was a strong proponent of legalizing online sports betting, but only if the measure included VLTs. 

These bills are all referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Hoskins had been a member since 2018, but they stall out.

2020

Legislators introduced six bills to legalize sports betting, which included provisions like remote registration and royalty fees for wagers involving pro sports leagues and the NCAA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted progress on legislation that year.

2019

HB 199, establishing sports wagering in Missouri, was introduced and referred to the Missouri House General Laws Committee. The bill established an 8% tax rate and $10,000 application fee, but would have allowed leagues to require operators to use official data in settling any bet unrelated to the final score. 

In committee, it was amended to include an integrity fee of 0.25% of handle for pro sports leagues and state universities, and another 0.6% fee to fund the upkeep of Missouri sports stadiums. The committee voted to recommend it to the House floor in a 7-3 vote, but it didn't get there before the end of the 2019 legislative session. 

A bipartisan Special Interim Committee on Gaming convened in October to determine how to produce a competitive sports betting product in Missouri. At the time, committee chairman Dan Shaul said all members wanted mobile betting without in-person registration, no limits, no integrity fee, and no league data mandate.

2018

Rep. Bart Korman introduced HB 2320 to create a Missouri Gaming Commission to oversee sports betting. In anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling, state Rep. Dean Plocher introduced House Bill 2535, and Hoskins introduced SB 1013 to legalize sports betting. The latter bills would allow sports betting online and in-person on Missouri riverboats, while allowing leagues to control official data.

HB 2535 lost steam in its committee hearing, and SB 1013 never made it that far.

By a 6-3 vote, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the PASPA statute that makes sports betting illegal on the federal level is unconstitutional. Any state that wants to legalize the activity is free to do so.

Signing up with and using Missouri sportsbooks will be easy. I'll explain what to expect during the sign-up process and betting markets to explore.

Missouri sports betting sites will use geolocation software to pinpoint your location when you sign up, and you must be in the state at the time. 

After successfully opening the account, you must still be in the state when you make wagers. 

Pre-registration should be offered for Missouri sports betting sites. As we have touched upon, we will monitor the situation and pass along the online sportsbook promo codes when pre-registration becomes available.

DFS pick'em and social sportsbooks are legal in Missouri. The Missouri Gaming Commission sent cease-and-desist letters to daily fantasy operators to stop against-the-house pick’em contests. However, the state still allows peer-to-peer fantasy contests. 

Then-Governor Jay Nixon signed House Bill 1941 to legalize DFS sites in June 2016.

This is a list of the operators that the Missouri Gaming Commission has licensed: PrizePicks, DraftKings, FanDuel, FastDraft, Fantasy Football Players Championship, OwnersBox, RealTime Fantasy Sports, CDM Sports, Underdog Sports, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, Fanball, and StatHero.

Horse racing betting sites have been legal under 313.660 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, but only within the confines of a licensed racetrack. The only problem is that Missouri has no tracks, and online sports betting platforms cannot accept MO residents.

Even though sports betting isn’t legal in Missouri yet, the state already has a strong commitment to responsible gambling practices, thanks to its casinos. Missouri casinos follow the American Gaming Association’s Responsible Gaming Code of Conduct, which pledges to prevent underage gambling, serve alcohol responsibly, advertise responsibly, and provide oversight.

You can sign up for Missouri’s voluntary List of Disassociated Persons (also known as the Problem Gambling list) online or in person.

You can contact the National Problem Gambling Helpline any time:

• Phone: 1-800-GAMBLER
• Text: 800GAM
• Chat: 1800gamblerchat.org