Missouri Sports Betting to Go Live, Despite Close Vote

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00:00And sports betting did pass in the state of Missouri, so it's the first new state, I believe,

00:10this year to go online, which is super cool.

00:14The other part of this is that I saw, I haven't followed up on this, so I'm glad you're on.

00:17I saw that there was a strong possibility that the companies go online in December,

00:23so that's really quick.

00:24Is that accurate?

00:25Are we going to see sports betting live in Missouri next month?

00:28I don't believe it'll be that quick.

00:30The Missouri Gaming Commission does say they're going to work on this as fast as possible,

00:34so I wouldn't be surprised.

00:37Maybe they could pull it off.

00:38I don't know.

00:39We'll see.

00:40Early next year, maybe quarter one, quarter two, certainly a better possibility.

00:43This is the end of a saga that we've been talking about, Craig, for how long?

00:47Since I've been coming on here for nearly two years or so.

00:51I remember when I first started coming on here and we were talking about the race that

00:55Kansas and Missouri were having to launch, and Missouri seemed like they were also going

00:59to get it done in 2022, and then they didn't.

01:04And then they didn't again in 2023, and then they didn't again this year legislatively

01:08because of a big major legislative block.

01:10And so then this huge campaign started up to get it on the ballot, and we saw a huge

01:15fight for it and against it.

01:17You know, the pro sports teams and FanDuel and DraftKings poured a lot of money into

01:22it.

01:23They eventually poured a lot of money against it, actually the most ever for a ballot initiative

01:29in Missouri.

01:30It was over $14 million.

01:31It was over $40 million for it from DraftKings, the teams, and FanDuel.

01:35And I tell you what, we were watching the polls coming through all year.

01:39It was always about 52% for, 48%, well, not 48% against, but you know, a lot of undecideds.

01:47It passed by the skin of its teeth.

01:48It needed 50.01% to pass.

01:52It got 50.07% of votes, just a couple thousand more than voted against it.

01:58So I mean, this was a very close race.

02:00We knew it would be.

02:03And here we are, we're going to see Missouri sports betting go live sometime in the next

02:06year by next November.

02:09Of note, I think really interesting is, as I just mentioned, Caesars mounted a giant

02:14opposition campaign.

02:16But all of a sudden, about two weeks or three weeks before the election, they pulled their

02:20ads.

02:21The opposition campaign pulled the ads.

02:22Well, it turns out that the Missouri Gaming Commission is kind of taking an interesting

02:28read of the ballot question, which most people had said would be one online sports betting

02:33operator per casino, which is why Caesars likely didn't like that because they'd want,

02:38you know, they have three casinos and they want more, you know, more operators for themselves.

02:44And it seems like they're going to get one sports book per casino.

02:49So it seems like Caesars might have changed their tune a little bit, but again, very close

02:53election.

02:54So the opposition campaign, you know, probably worked a little bit in the end against them.

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