Missouri Set for Final March Madness Without Legal Sportsbooks
Missouri residents have no legal sportsbooks readily available to position bets as the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ideas off today. That will alter for the 2026 tournament.
Though Missouri voters approved legal books on the 2024 ballot, wagerers can't place their very first bets till fall 2025. In the meantime, Show Me State customers aiming to wager with a legal sportsbook will have to wager in a nearby state.
Why Missouri will not have legal sportsbooks this March
After years attempting to legalize sports betting through Missouri's statehouse, advocates consisting of the major professional sports teams and leading nationwide sportsbooks, pushed for wagering approval through a 2024 ballot procedure. After surviving a late legal challenge and eight-figure opposition project, the measure passed by a couple of thousand votes out of almost 3 million tallies cast.
Regulators charged with implementing legal sports wagering hoped for books to go live by summer season 2025. Missouri's Secretary of State delayed that when he denied a petition to speed up the regulatory process.
Even in a best-case situation, it was unlikely Missouri would have books licensed before March Madness began.
The regulatory process consists of promoting key guidelines such as monetary disclosures, licensure credentials, background checks, event betting eligibility and a host of other decisions. Each book also needs to be tested separately.
In the majority of the 30 other states with legal online sports betting, the time from legal wagering approval to very first wager has been around six-to-nine months.
A targeted summer season approval would have been among the United States' quicker turn-arounds. The existing timeline tasks the very first books to begin in October or November of this year ahead of a legally mandated Dec. 1 go-live date.
Missouri wagering choices for the 2025 competition
Missouri gamblers ready to cross state lines to bet with a legal sportsbook have multiple alternatives.
Missouri's two biggest city locations, St. Louis and Kansas City, border Illinois and Kansas, respectively. Both states have multiple legal sports betting alternatives and are a relatively easy drive (and even stroll) from the respective Missouri cities' downtown cores.
Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee don't share significant population centers however use much of the same significant online sportsbook brand names. Arkansas allows statewide mobile betting however just with 3 regional brands related to the state's gambling establishments. Nebraska just allows in-person wagering while Oklahoma has no legal sportsbook wagering alternatives.
Missourians wanting to wager on the 2025 March Madness might also put contracts with exchange betting platforms such as Kalshi and Robinhood.
Future Missouri sports wagering
By 2026, Missouri is set to have approximately a lots significant sportsbooks, many or all anticipated to be live ahead of that year's Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which integrated contributed more than $30 million to the Missouri sports wagering tally measure, both revealed public intentions to introduce in the state. BetMGM, the country's No. 3 operator by handle behind the duo, likewise prepares to go reside in the state.
Caesars, which moneyed the opposition project over concerns about licensing access structure, would also be positioned to go live. Other live books in neighboring states consisting of BetRivers, ESPN BET, bet365, Fanatics and Acid rock might likewise be amongst the new operators.
Once live, Missouri sportsbooks will let in-state bettors place wagers on Show Me State athletic programs consisting of the University of Missouri. This contrasts with Illinois, which prohibits gamblers physically located within its borders to bank on in-state college teams.