Missouri's Sports Betting Legalization Faces Opposition

SportsGrid

Watch Missouri's Sports Betting Legalization Faces Opposition - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00It has been a slow year across the United States for news on legalizing sports betting.

00:09And I guess partially the reason why is because it was such an incredible first few years

00:15when they repealed PASPA and all of these different states started legalize sports gambling.

00:19So last year, the big story was Florida, obviously getting it in the hard rock back and forth,

00:23everything else.

00:24It does appear that our story to cover in the final quarter of the year is Missouri

00:29with it going on the ballot in November, but it's now being met with people who do not

00:34want this legalized.

00:36So I guess the question becomes is not, is it going to get legalized or not, Sam, but

00:40what does this opposition really look like?

00:42Yeah, definitely.

00:44Craig you're spot on with, you know, the more states that have legalized, the less you have

00:48left to legalize unless we would add more states to the 50 we already have.

00:52But it's been a slow year for companies.

00:55They're kind of focusing on Missouri, as you mentioned, which will bring sports betting

01:00to the ballot in November.

01:02Now ahead of November, we have some opposition that's popped up.

01:06We hadn't really had much either side for or against this ballot.

01:12But as we get closer to November, I imagine we'll get more and more of this kind of groups

01:18coming out opposing it or being for it.

01:20So the group that came out against it, surprisingly, is actually Caesars.

01:24They donated $4 million to a newly formed political action committee called Missourians

01:31Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment, which was obviously formed to have commercials

01:37or pass out pamphlets, whatever it may be, any sort of information that would have people

01:43vote against this ballot.

01:44Now you might ask, why Caesars?

01:46Don't they want sports betting in Missouri?

01:48And the answer to that question is, yes, they do want sports betting in Missouri, but they

01:52want it on their terms.

01:55As the language is written in this amendment, it would allow each of the state's casinos

02:00to have one sports betting license and also create two more, which would be called untethered,

02:06basically, no requirements that you have a partnership with a land-based casino or racetrack,

02:12which we've seen a lot of other states do.

02:15So this is a departure from previous attempts to legalize in Missouri, which would have

02:20given each casino multiple licenses.

02:22There's about six in Missouri, so that would have created up to 12, 15 sports books, each

02:28of which would be controlled by the casinos and no untethered ones.

02:31So the PAC says this question was written by and for the financial benefit of out-of-state

02:38corporations and sponsors and funders, which would probably be FanDuel and DraftKings,

02:44who are the two sports books that have donated to the campaign to legalize.

02:48They've donated $11.5 million to get this on the ballot, to get it passed by the people

02:55to create an amendment.

02:56So Caesars is the first, it's pretty notable, Caesars is the first company that owns a casino

03:02or owns sports betting to oppose it.

03:06Others like BetMGM, MGM doesn't have any casinos in the state.

03:10They haven't gotten involved yet.

03:11So pretty notable that Caesars is coming out here and sort of directly opposing FanDuel

03:15and DraftKings.

03:16Now, if you ask me whether or not this will pass, I'd have to lean on yes, because there's

03:20more money coming in on one direction.

03:23I know Missouri has wanted to legalize sports betting for a while.

03:27If sort of the only argument that's being put out there is by a casino that just wants

03:32more control over it, it'd be sort of a tough hill to climb.

03:35But you never know.

03:36Missouri's been a tough one for a while.

03:37So we'll check back in a few weeks.

03:39I'm sure when more money comes the other way and have to see in November.

Category

Transcript

Recommended