The Number of Permitted Missouri Sports Betting Licenses Remains in Doubt

The road to the launch of Missouri sports betting continues to be peppered with question marks, twists and turns, and general uncertainty.

This…probably should not surprise us. The legalization of sports betting in Missouri has been anything but predictable. First, the actual legalization process required a special course. Bills initially failed to make it out of both the House of Representatives and Senate. So, the Winning for Missouri for Education coalition, made up of both pro sports franchises and sportsbooks, took matters into their own hands. They filed a petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures in order to put a measure in front of voters.

Then, after the voting process, it was not clear whether the initiative even passed. The margin of victory was so slim many wondered whether there would be a recount. In the end, no recount was needed. But the result was nothing if not a nail-biter.

Since then, the rollout process is officially underway. And it remains lined with audibles. The timeline to launch sports betting in Missouri has been pushed back after Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected an application that essentially aimed to accelerate the rollout. And now, the number of permitted Missouri sports betting licenses is apparently still in doubt.

If you find yourself asking how this is possible, well, you are most certainly not alone. Let us see if we can shed some light on a truly bizarre situation.

Interpretation of Missouri Sports Betting Laws is at the Heart of all the Confusion

Right now, it appears as if the interpretation of Missouri sports betting laws is driving the debate of the number of allowed sportsbooks. Here is Jill R. Dorson of iGaming Business with the lowdown:

“Besides the response from the secretary of state, it seems possible that the Missouri attorney general’s office may change the interpretation of the number of skins available to casino companies. Ahead of the November election, the Missouri Gaming Commission told iGB that the attorney general’s office would interpret the law to mean that one digital skin would be available to each physical casino. The industry welcomed this interpretation. Caesars Entertainment stood down on its efforts to kill the voter initiative to legalise sports betting. It had been widely understood that due to the wording of the proposal, land-based casino companies would get the rights to one digital licence per company instead of one per location. This interpretation of the initiative was not attractive to the state’s existing casino operators. Many operate two or more physical locations in Missouri.”

As it turns out, however, this already-contested interpretation is not set in stone. It does not even seem written in sand.

“It's unclear if Missouri could have up to 14 or up to 21 potential mobile sportsbooks, state regulators tell Covers,” Ryan Butler of Covers.com posted on X (formerly Twitter). “The state's attorney general's office is reviewing the ballot measure language that approved sports betting to determine license eligibility.”

This is quite the curveball. And it materially changes the range of Missouri sportsbooks allowed to open. We are talking about a 50 percent increase over the 14 proposed Missouri online sportsbooks depending on how the Attorney General rules on the matter.

Could The Latest Issue Push Back the Launch of Sports Gambling in Missouri Even Further?

The answer to this question is “no”—for now, anyway. The reasoning is twofold.

First and foremost, the debut of Missouri sports betting has no official timeline. Officials initially were trying to launch by August. This way, The Show-Me State would be able to capitalize on sports betting in the United States ahead of the 2025 NFL season. 

However, Hoskins’ rejection of the timeline acceleration proposals have effectively removed this as a possibility. And ever since he weighed, Missouri’s most prominent stakeholders have yet to release another concrete timetable.

That brings us to the second part of the answer: The Missouri sports betting launch has an overall deadline. The constitutional amendment that legalizes sports wagering calls for operations to roll out no later than December 2025. 

For the time being, at least, the state must adhere to that deadline. So while an end-of-the-year launch is not considered ideal by many, it does provide a layer of closure. We may not exactly know when sports betting in The Show Me State will go live. But we know when it must go live by.

Some are Not Giving Up on a Sports Betting Launch for the Beginning of September

Without the approval to speed up certain regulatory processes, the Missouri Gaming Commission doesn’t seem as if it will have the launch completed by the end of the summer. Then again, they have not technically ruled it out, either.

Launching before the start of September is the overarching goal. That allows Missouri to capitalize on the pinnacle of NFL betting. As many know by now, states prefer to tailor launches around these tentpole events. That is why we have seen locations launch around Super Bowl betting trends and even the peak of March Madness betting. It helps drive market exposure and overall business.

All of which means Missouri has plenty of incentive to keep prioritizing speed. Granted, it may not matter. But if they can accelerate other parts of the process, the application denied by Hoskins may not matter as much.

Missouri has one thing working for it in this regard. Thirty-eight states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have already launched some form of sports betting. The Show Me State is not working off a blank canvas. It has dozens of different precedents from which to draw. 

This knowledge cannot help the Missouri Gaming Commission cut through red tape any faster. It can, however, help them streamline other aspects of the launch. Will this be enough for Missouri sports betting to launch before the 2025 NFL season? The answer will be a matter of course.

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: