There is less than two months to go before the first legal Missouri sports bet is placed. The process took a big step forward on Wednesday with the Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) awarding several temporary sports betting licenses.
FanDuel, Fanatics, Caesars, Penn Entertainment (ESPN Bet), bet365, BetMGM, and Underdog are said to be of the brands that got the green light to begin making the necessary preparations for the December 1 launch, however this is yet to be officially announced by the MGC itself.
DraftKings and Circa are launching the same day. They were not included on this week’s list as a result of being awarded untethered licenses. MGC sports betting regulations permit two sportsbooks to launch without having to partner with a land-based casino or Missouri pro sports team.
Missouri sports betting licensees have announced market access partnerships over the last several months. Some are obvious as a result of parent companies having land-based casinos in the Show Me State.
The table below provides a breakdown of all the Missouri mobile sports betting partnerships that have been announced.
| Sportsbook | Market Access Partner |
|---|---|
| Circa | Untethered |
| DraftKings | Untethered |
| bet365 | St. Louis Cardinals (MLB) |
| BetMGM | Century Casinos |
| Caesars | Harrah’s Kansas City Horseshoe St. Louis |
| ESPN Bet | Argosy Riverside Hollywood Casino St. Louis River City Casino |
| Fanatics | Boyd Gaming |
| FanDuel | St. Louis City FC (MLS) |
| Underdog | Kansas City Royals |
Underdog recently announced a completely separate marketing partnership with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. This deal gives Underdog an opportunity to promote its sportsbook product at the Enterprise Center. There is still a sports betting license available via a market access deal with the Blues.
Underdogs is an established daily fantasy sports (DFS) company trying to become a bigger player in the sports betting space. North Carolina is the only other market where Underdog Sportsbook is available. DraftKings and FanDuel started out as DFS products before crossing over to the online gambling sector.
Missouri has up to 14 sports betting licenses available, including a partnership with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
Bally Bet, BetRivers, and Hard Rock Bet are a few prominent sports betting brands that remain on the Missouri sports betting sidelines. Bally’s operates a land-based Kansas City Casino. Hard Rock and Rush Street (parent company of Rivers) do not have a Missouri presence. With Dec. 1 fast approaching, it seems unlikely that the three operators will be moving forward at this time.
All of the operators that have received licenses can go live at 12:01 a.m. December 1. However, the current Missouri sports betting regulations will allow players to create accounts and make deposits starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, November 17.
Missouri sports betting is going live during NFL Week 13, which leaves five weeks of the regular season plus the playoffs and Super Bowl. Users can expect to see strong College Football bowl season, NBA, NHL, and college basketball betting menus as well.
