Will Kansas Sports Betting be Impacted by Missouri Legalization?

When Kansas sports betting launched back in September 2022, the move was about more than focusing on in-state business. It was also about capitalizing on the absence of Missouri sports betting.

Is that all about to change? Many inside and outside The Sunflower State think so.

Voters narrowly approved the legalization of sports betting in Missouri this past November. According to the initiative, known as Amendment 2, The Show-Me State will launch sports gambling no later than 2025. At that time, the market for online sports betting in Kansas will theoretically shrink. Missourians will no longer have any need to cross state lines to place their wager.

Does this matter to the bottom line for Kansas sports betting revenue? And if so, how much will The Sunflower State be impacted? Is there a chance, at all, that any and all concern is being overblown? 

Kansas Sports Betting Spokesperson Says the State Isn’t Worried About Missouri Sports Betting Legalization

Cory Thone, a spokesperson for the Kansas State Lottery, which oversees sports betting, recently told WBIW 13 that regulators are not worried about Missouri sports betting negatively impacting their market. 

“I think there would certainly be some type of impact but I’m not sure how much it’s going to be, I don’t want to speculate,” Thone says. “For a lot of these people that live in Missouri that maybe were coming to Kansas, I would expect them to keep their Kansas account so maybe when they are in the state they will make a bet when they are here but they also have options somewhere else as well.”

To be honest, this sentiment feels like wishful thinking. Sure, Missourians may keep their Kansas sports betting accounts. But the usage of those accounts will likely decline exponentially. Rather than a lifeline to online sports betting in the United States, they will become ancillary. Other accounts will become dormant. And you better believe many will close their accounts with Kansas sportsbooks. 

Remember, for many Missourians living on the border, traveling to Kansas was all about sports betting. So even if you bank on them to keep using accounts when they visit, Amendment 2 in Missouri has effectively nuked their primary reason to be in Kansas at all.

Of course, this only matters a great deal if people from Missouri account for a noticeable market share of Kansas sports betting. Are we entirely certain this is the case?

How Much Money Do Missouri Residents Spend Betting on Sports in Kansas?

Finding an exact answer to this question can be difficult. Sportsbooks in Kansas do not report gambling handles or profits relative to the location of where people register their account.

Still, data from GeoComply, a company that tracks sports betting login attempts by region, can give us an idea of just how much interest Missourians have in using Kansas sportsbooks. And, well, let’s just say the numbers are staggering. Consider this data relayed by Winning for Missouri Education, the coalition that backed the state’s sports betting bill:

“New data highlights the extent of Missouri’s lost revenue due to the lack of legalized sports betting. From the start of the NFL season on September 5 through October 21, Missouri’s 216,000 mobile sports betting accounts tried, but failed, to place 11.1 million wagers in neighboring states where sports betting is legal. This data, provided by gaming compliance company GeoComply, underscores the demand for a safe, regulated betting framework within Missouri. “The data shows that 57 percent of these 11.1 million attempted sports wagers were trying to access legal sportsbooks in Illinois, while 37 percent were attempting to place bets with Kansas sportsbooks. While these bets weren’t accepted because they were physically in Missouri at the time, tens of thousands of others likely drove into one of Missouri’s neighboring states to place bets and help our neighboring economies.” 

While a rough outline, this data suggests that Kansas sports betting relies on Missourians for millions of dollars worth of bets each year. That number could even be in the tens of millions. 

Losing most of that customer base will most definitely be a blow to The Sunflower State. To what end is debatable. But it is absolutely something to track in the future.

Kansas Has Time to Monitor and Assess the Impact of Missouri Sports Betting

Fortunately for Kansas, they are not in immediate danger of seeing their sports betting revenue fall off a cliff. Missouri sports betting will not launch until August 2025 at the absolute earliest. This gives The Sunflower another eight months, at least, to capitalize on their out-of-state customer base. Notably, this stretch includes another Super Bowl betting as well as NFL Draft, NBA Finals betting and Stanley Cup Betting cycle. 

These eight months can also be used to prepare. Granted, proactive measures can be difficult. Kansas sports betting regulators cannot how their handle and revenue is impacted until Missouri sports betting goes live. But they can at least consider contingencies. Do they discuss increasing the Kansas sports betting tax to offer some loss of business? Would adding another Kansas online sportsbook to the fold make a difference? These are all things that should at least be up for discussion now. 

Like we said, though, it will be quite some time before Kansas knows how to respond. Or if what happens even requires a response. The first year of Missouri sports betting may not even be long enough to get a hold on the impact its legalization has on Kansas. Whether this is a good or bad thing remains to be seen.

Take a look at this list of the top online sportsbooks so you can find one that works for all of your sports betting needs: