Missouri Set For Final March Madness Without Legal Sportsbooks
Missouri residents have no legal sportsbooks offered to place bets as the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament suggestions off today. That will alter for the 2026 competition.
Though Missouri citizens approved legal books on the 2024 tally, bettors can't put their first bets till fall 2025. In the meantime, Show Me State consumers seeking to bet with a legal sportsbook will have to wager in a neighboring state.
Why Missouri will not have legal sportsbooks this March
After years attempting to legislate sports betting through Missouri's statehouse, proponents consisting of the state's major expert sports groups and leading nationwide sportsbooks, pushed for betting approval through a 2024 tally step. After enduring a late legal obstacle and eight-figure opposition project, the procedure passed by a few thousand votes out of nearly 3 million tallies cast.
Regulators tasked with carrying out legal sports wagering expected books to go live by summer 2025. Missouri's Secretary of State delayed that when he denied a petition to speed up the regulatory process.
Even in a best-case scenario, it was not likely Missouri would have books accredited before March Madness started.
The regulatory process includes crucial rules such as financial disclosures, licensure qualification, background checks, occasion wagering eligibility and a host of other decisions. Each book also needs to be checked individually.
In the majority of the 30 other states with legal online sports betting, the time from legal betting approval to first wager has been around six-to-nine months.
A targeted summertime approval would have been one of the United States' quicker turnarounds. The present timeline projects the very first books to begin in October or November of this year ahead of a lawfully mandated Dec. 1 go-live date.
Missouri betting options for the 2025 competition
Missouri wagerers going to cross state lines to wager with a legal sportsbook have multiple choices.
Missouri's two biggest metro locations, St. Louis and Kansas City, border Illinois and Kansas, respectively. Both states have numerous legal sports betting alternatives and are a relatively easy drive (or even walk) from the respective Missouri cities' downtown cores.
Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee do not share significant population centers but provide a lot of the same major online sportsbook brands. Arkansas allows statewide mobile wagering but only with three regional brand names related to the state's casinos. Nebraska just permits in-person betting while Oklahoma has no legal sportsbook wagering choices.
Missourians seeking to bank on the 2025 March Madness might likewise place contracts with exchange wagering platforms such as Kalshi and Robinhood.
Future Missouri sports wagering
By 2026, Missouri is set to have roughly a dozen significant sportsbooks, a lot of or all expected to be live ahead of that year's Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament.
FanDuel and DraftKings, which integrated contributed more than $30 million to the Missouri sports betting ballot measure, both announced public intents to launch in the state. BetMGM, the nation's No. 3 operator by deal with behind the duo, also plans to go live in the state.
Caesars, which moneyed the opposition campaign over issues about licensing gain access to structure, would likewise be placed to go live. Other live books in neighboring states including BetRivers, ESPN BET, bet365, Fanatics and Hard Rock could also be among the brand-new operators.
Once live, Missouri sportsbooks will let in-state wagerers place wagers on Show Me State athletic programs including the University of Missouri. This contrasts with Illinois, which prohibits gamblers physically situated within its borders to bank on in-state college groups.
