YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Although he said he doesn’t gamble much, Bryan Bevel, owner of The Pitch Pizza & Pub in Springfield, believed it was only a matter of time before Missouri became a player in the sports betting realm. Now, the moment is almost here, as Missouri will next month become the 41st state to have legal sports betting in the U.S.
“I couldn’t imagine in my lifetime there being legalized recreational marijuana in the state of Missouri,” he said. “So now to have legalized gambling seems very commonplace to me. I don’t think it’s going to be the doom of our society by any stretch.”
Dec. 1 is the launch date for the sports betting market statewide, as people in Missouri, 21 years and older, will be able to place bets on professional and collegiate sports games in casinos and online apps. Nine sportsbooks are set to go live in Missouri on that date after being given temporary sports betting licenses by the Missouri Gaming Commission. The sports betting industry is regulated by the MGC, which also oversees the state’s 13 casinos.
Bevel said that at The Pitch, he has 10 TV sets playing sports all of the time – and he subscribes to more TV sports packages than he cares to admit.
“With all the cable packages being all jacked up, you got people that can’t see the game at home that will come up here specifically to see [University of Kansas] play or something like that,” he said.
While he doesn’t think the legalization of sports betting will specifically bring in more customers to his pub, he does believe people may stick around longer to watch sports there. That could lead to more food and drink sales, he said.
“Initially, I think more or less the big draw would just be the prop bets and stuff like that, because people want to discuss all of this while they’re sitting there having a beer,” he said, in reference to wagers that don’t directly affect the final score of a game.
Reaching launch
The MGC announced in September that operators who receive a temporary sports betting license can begin offering preregistration and accept deposits for app users on Nov. 17. That announcement was preceded by MGC’s decision in August to award Circa Sports and DraftKings with the state’s two direct mobile licenses. The licenses received by Circa Sports and DraftKings are untethered, meaning regulators will allow the companies to offer sports wagering in the state without partnering with a Missouri sports team or land-based casino.
Other sportsbooks have announced partnerships in the months before the launch date. Bet365 is partnering with the St. Louis Cardinals, FanDuel is teaming up with St. Louis City SC and Underdog is on board with the Kansas City Royals. BetMGM is a partner with Century Casinos, and Fanatics Sportsbook is teaming with Boyd Gaming. Penn Sports Interactive and Caesars Sportsbook will use their existing Missouri casinos.
Under current rules, the MGC can issue up to 19 retail sports betting licenses and 14 online licenses, providing room for expansion once the market opens.
Jan Zimmerman, MGC chair, said there’s been a lot of work by the commission’s 80 staffers vetting applications for the temporary licenses. She added commission staff is “in pretty constant contact with those locations that are actually going to have a physical sportsbook on the property.”
That includes several of the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos, such as Harrah’s Kansas City, Horseshoe St. Louis and Century Casino & Hotel Cape Girardeau.
“We are scurrying around to get those temporary licenses issued,” Zimmerman said. “Obviously, we want to make sure that the suppliers are up and running and everything has been tested to make sure when the go-live happens, it actually goes live and there’s not glitches in the system.”
The road to legal sports betting in Missouri was reached through the narrow passage by voters last year of Amendment 2. The amendment set the tax rate on betting revenue at 10% – a number that can’t be altered without another constitutional amendment.
According to state officials, tax revenue could reach up to $28.9 million annually when sports betting is fully operational in the state. The MGC estimates the total adjusted gross revenue for sports wagering in Missouri will be $63.5 million for its first year – or roughly $6.3 million from the gaming tax; $179.7 million for its second year – nearly $8 million in gaming tax; and $245.6 million in year three, which would bring in roughly $24.5 million from the gaming tax.
By year five, the state estimates sports betting could generate nearly $29 million in gaming tax revenue. Of that total, $5 million would be designated for a fund intended to address gambling addiction. The remaining money is for public schools and higher education, state officials say.
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in February rejected emergency rulemaking for sports betting, delaying its launch. Still, Zimmerman said she feels good about the work her staff has done this year to meet the mandatory Dec. 1 deadline set by the constitutional amendment.
“People would’ve loved to have seen sports wagering happen much sooner than Dec. 1,” she said. “Obviously, it’s important for us to get it right and to make sure that we have done our due diligence as far as the rules and what those rules will look like.”
Those rules are for the companies, casinos or sports teams partnering to provide sportsbooks, as well as to protect consumers who place bets, she said.
The legal sports betting market launched last year in two states – North Carolina and Vermont – after starting in five others in 2023. The additional states aided the boost in sports betting revenue to $13.78 billion in 2024, a nearly 25% year-over-year increase, according to the American Gaming Association. Last year, Americans bet a total of nearly $150 billion on sports.
Addictive activity
Patrick Ransdell, Missouri State University’s director of athletics, said he wishes his staff wouldn’t have to deal with the betting world, particularly regarding its exposure to the student-athletes they are involved with at MSU.
“I would rather steer clear of it,” he said. “But I also can read the writing on the wall, and it is probably here, so we’re just going to have to figure out over time the best way to deal with it.”
Ransdell said while it’s certain some collegiate sports will appear in Missouri sportsbooks, which ones remain to be seen: Football and men’s and women’s basketball would be most likely to prompt betting by fans.
“Obviously, we’re concerned as I think anybody would be in the sport betting space with the emergence of all the online opportunities and states legalizing sports gambling,” he said. “It’s something that we’re certainly keeping an eye on, and we’re providing education to our student-athletes each and every day.”
Conflicts of interest and corruption are among risks that college athletes are exposed to in sports gambling. MSU is a member of Division I in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Randell said he’s keeping an eye on the NCAA and its rules regarding a recent change approved last month to permit student-athletes and athletics department staff members to bet on professional sports. It was approved by Division I, II and III councils in October, according to a news release. The rule change is expected to be effective Nov. 22.
The NCAA prohibition against betting on college sports, along with sharing information about college competitions with other bettors, remains intact. The Division I committee emphasized in approving the rule change that the action is not an endorsement of sports betting, particularly for student-athletes.
Ransdell said he’s not certain the rule change will take effect, as he’s heard of pushback against it from some officials, such as Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey. Sankey criticized the NCAA decision in a memo sent to the organization, according to multiple national news reports.
“Our directive is you are not allowed to place wagers on NCAA-sanctioned sports, college or professional, and that’s really our talking point until something changes with some of these votes,” Ransdell said of the university’s current policy involving student-athletes and athletic department staff. “We can provide resources to help our student-athletes if they so need it, and we’re just trying to educate as much as possible because I do think once you start going down a road, it’s very difficult to have an off-ramp.”
Shawn Freeman, director of intercollegiate athletics psychological services at MSU, said accessing gambling will be pretty easy.
“You just need to have a smart device, basically,” he said.
Freeman also has concerns about the impact sports betting could have on student-athletes’ lives.
“One, there’s a risk of developing addiction and it becoming a personal problem. The other one is then being at risk of being targeted as a result of that,” he said, in reference to people seeking inside gambling tips on games.
Gambling addiction could also come with risks for student-student-athletes, and these could include loss of eligibility, Freeman said.
A February 2025 study published in medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine noted sports betting and gambling addiction help-seeking has experienced a significant rise since the 2018 Murphy v. NCAA Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to legalize sports betting.
Researchers analyzed aggregate Google search trends for queries that mentioned gambling, addiction, addict, anonymous or hotline, from Jan. 1, 2016, through June 30, 2024. The searches for gambling addiction help cumulatively increased 23% nationally since the Murphy v. NCAA decision through June 2024, according to the study.
Zimmerman said she’s not holding her breath that everything will go perfectly when sports betting begins Dec. 1. However, she’s hopeful any issues can be resolved quickly.
“People are just really wanting sports wagering to go live,” Zimmerman said. “But a year from now, people won’t remember a time when we didn’t have it.”
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