Missouri Sports Betting Push: DraftKings' $3.5M Donation

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00:00All right, let's get started here, Missouri, one of the states we're keeping an eye on

00:07as far as getting sports betting going.

00:09Seems like the sports betting operators are also jumping on board.

00:12What's the latest with DraftKings and their attempt to help out Missouri here a little

00:16bit?

00:17Yeah, so just a little bit of history.

00:19If you don't tune into the show all the time when I just speak about Missouri ad nauseum

00:23for the last three years and how much they've struggled, you know, they've had a couple

00:27legislative pushes that have gotten over the hump in the House that had been supported

00:31by the casinos in the state, the sports books in the state, the sports teams in the states,

00:36particularly the St. Louis Cardinals.

00:38And then after the latest failure, which the House didn't even send to the Senate because

00:42there's a single senator over there saying, I don't want sports betting unless it's connected

00:47to video lottery terminals, which are those slot machines you see in gas stations and

00:51the like.

00:52And in Missouri, there's a certain, you know, rule that basically a single lawmaker can

00:57kill a piece of legislation.

01:00Finally, the stakeholders got fed up and they said, listen, we're just going to put this

01:04to the people.

01:06And so beginning last fall, there was a big ballot push.

01:09They needed 170,000 signatures to put it on the ballot.

01:13They got 370,000, turned it in early.

01:16It was verified just last week to be on the ballot in November.

01:21Up until last week, or through the ballot signature gathering push, we've had about

01:27$6.5 million donated from both FanDuel and DraftKings.

01:31So you know, the big sports books are saying, hey, we want this to happen.

01:36But then there was a couple months of nothing happening, and I think that was just because

01:39you're waiting to put it on the ballot.

01:41Well, now that it's on the ballot, DraftKings on Friday, according to the Missouri Ethics

01:45Commission, donated a $3.5 million check to the Winning for Missouri Education.

01:52It's called that because the sports betting funds in this proposal would go to fund Missouri's

01:59teachers, which are some of the most underpaid in the country.

02:04And you know, I talked to the spokesperson for Winning for Missouri Education, which

02:09everybody pointed me to, whether it was DraftKings or the Sports Betting Association.

02:17They all pointed me to Jack Cardetti, who said, you know, over the next 11 weeks, we're

02:20just going to use the money that we get.

02:22We're going to use the time to educate voters, to get this on everybody's minds, and show

02:28that why it's important.

02:31Now when we get to November, it's going to be close.

02:33I don't think there's any doubting that.

02:36We've had a lot of polling over the last two years.

02:39Earlier this year, we've seen, you know, 60% saying they're supportive of sports betting

02:46funds going to education.

02:47That was a couple of polls.

02:49More recently, we've seen a poll that was really split, and it was about 40% said they

02:53were for it, you know, 30% said they weren't, and then the remaining were kind of undecided.

02:59So it's going to be a close vote.

03:02It's going to be really interesting to watch.

03:04You know, I'd heard rumors that there would be some opposition from some significant parties.

03:09Haven't heard anything more.

03:10Of course, that would be filed in, you know, at the governmental level.

03:14So I'm watching that closely to see if there is any big parties that pop up in opposition.

03:19So far, so good.

03:21And yeah, it's going to be just a really close race.

03:24And you have to wonder, after having two close calls in the legislature this year, kind of

03:29just a wash, and that single senator being out of the Senate next year, what happens

03:35if it fails?

03:36And that's going to be something even more interesting post-November, is if it doesn't

03:41get passed by voters, what does the legislator think?

03:44Do they think, well, the people don't really want this?

03:47Do we still take this up as a big issue?

03:50And so there's a lot of things riding on this ballot proposal in November, and we'll see.

03:56And it's huge for the industry, because there's no North American, well, I guess Alberta,

04:00which we'll talk about tomorrow probably, but there's no U.S. market on the horizon

04:05for U.S. sportsbooks.

04:07So this is a huge reason why DraftKings and FanDuel are putting a lot of money in Missouri.

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