Missouri Sports Betting Launch Goes Without a Hitch

It took longer than usual to get here, but Missouri finally launched its mobile sports betting industry on December 1st, and it was pleasantly unremarkable, according to authorities.

No Hitches or Glitches

The only surprise entering the December 1st launch was Underdog Sports withdrawing its license just days before and pursuing a path in the prediction market industry.

Other than that, two untethered licensees, DraftKings and Circa Sports, along with tethered operators including BetMGM, bet365, Caesars Sportsbook, Fanatics Sportsbook, FanDuel, and theScore Bet (formerly ESPN BET), began accepting wagers at 12:01 AM on Monday, December 1st.

Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) chair Jan Zimmerman said a quiet start was precisely what she had hoped for, and she got her wish.
“No news is good news,” Zimmerman said. “If something had gone terribly wrong, I probably would have heard about it, but it was pretty quiet on Monday.”

According to GeoComply, there were 250,000 registered accounts on December 1st, of which 188,000 were registered in the weeks before the launch.

The BetMGM sportsbook at Century Casino in Cape Girardeau was the first of the eight retail sportsbooks to accept a bet shortly after midnight. However, the revenue driver will be through the digital realm, as mobile sports betting represents roughly 90% of the national sports betting handle.

Launch Delayed

It was a long 13 months from the time Missourians voted to approve legalized sports betting to Monday’s launch. The powers that be tried to get an emergency launch in June, but longtime nemesis and newly sworn-in Secretary of State Denny Hoskins denied the request.

The Executive Director of the Missouri Gaming Commission, Mike Leara, said, “The only answer we were given is that it didn’t meet the requirements under the statute.”

It was because of Hoskins’ intractability as a state senator that he continually derailed efforts to get sports betting approved through the legislature. Hoskins has made it clear he was not necessarily opposed to sports betting, but he wanted any bill to be tied to the legalization of video lottery terminals (VLTs) that dot the highways and byways of the Show Me State.

He got little support in that endeavor, and it forced Missouri’s professional sports franchises to form a political action committee, Winning for Missouri Education, to advocate for sports betting, with the angle being that a portion of the revenues would be earmarked for the state’s educational system.

Ultimately, the PAC gathered enough signatures to get the question on the ballot, where it was narrowly approved.