00:00But we did get some news over the weekend as far as the licenses that are going to be given out in Missouri.
00:05And, you know, DraftKings is the big name that I see here.
00:08But another one that popped up here caught me by surprise a little bit.
00:13Yeah, so there is confirmation now that DraftKings and Underdog Fantasy, or Underdog Sportsbook, as it will be, have both turned in applications.
00:22They're the first two operators to apply.
00:24We figured DraftKings would apply.
00:26Underdog let people know a couple months ago, I believe it was, that they would end up applying in Missouri.
00:34We've got a few other operators that we know who they're partnered with.
00:37Century Casino's partnered with BetMGM.
00:39We haven't confirmed an application with them yet.
00:43Bet365, of course, we've talked about on the show before, partnered with the St. Louis Cardinals.
00:48And so, yeah, it is a slow process.
00:50You know, I've been coming on this show for three years, I think, at this point.
00:54Wow, that's a long time.
00:55And I think pretty much every time I've been rotating through, we've talked about Missouri and getting off the ground.
01:03You know, I remember early on we talked about the race between Kansas and Missouri.
01:07Well, Kansas has been live for, you know, three years now practically, and Missouri's not even there.
01:12And, you know, that was part of the long legislative lead up, largely led by Denny Hoskins, who is now Secretary of State.
01:21And he was kind of leading the charge against legalizing it.
01:24And this, he also posed the hurdle that prevented the emergency rules, which would have maybe had it live by now in Missouri.
01:33And instead, the application process has taken a long time.
01:38You know, the rules will go into effect in September, I thought, maybe based on some timelines we've seen in the past that they'd get up and live.
01:45But I think they're just going to go ahead and say, you know what, let's take our time, make sure we get everything right, ducks in a row.
01:50So let's launch all at the same time in December.
01:53I'm sure that's what we'll see.
01:54And it is going to be, you know, Matt Waters has a great piece over on Legal Sports Report about kind of what the recent Illinois tax per bet tax could do for maybe DraftKings and Fanswell.
02:06Maybe they really pour in more marketing into Missouri and maybe even try to get people from Illinois to Missouri, which would be an interesting fact.
02:14But, yeah, a great story by Matt over there.
02:16Yeah, Missouri, I think it's going to be a fun market to watch launch.
02:20It's just taking a long time to get live after, you know, three years of talking about it with you.
