Missouri Sports Betting to Launch Sooner than Expected

A new market for our best sports betting sites might be opening up sooner than expected.

Although the year has just begun, some US states looking to regulate sports betting aren’t wasting any time. Missouri sports betting officials are already revving engines, and it is likely to be the first US state to debut sports betting in 2025. 

It didn’t take long for Jan Zimmerman, Chairman of the Missouri Gaming Commission, to recover from New Year celebrations. On the second day of the year, she told the press that launching sports betting in the state was moving faster than anticipated.

The Official Ballot on Amendment 2

On Nov. 5 and the following days, Missourians were called to vote on , which would amend the state’s constitution to allow the Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) to regulate online and retail sports betting. 

The change allows the MGC to regulate and license sports wagering online, on retail premises, and gambling boats. Wagering is restricted to people over 21. A 10% tax on wagering revenues will be allocated to education and a compulsive gambling prevention fund. State officials predicted an initial one-time cost of $660,000, followed by annual costs of $5.2 million. Sports betting is forecasted to generate initial licensing fees of $11.75 million and up to $28.9 million in annual revenues. 

A razor-thin margin passed the amendment, and when the results were announced in November, Zimmerman appeared to hit the ground running, saying to the press: “Our folks are writing the rules and regulations as we speak.”

The Next Steps

Zimmerman already said in November that the application process should be pretty straightforward: “This application process really won’t be significantly different [from the current casino licensing]. There are lots of folks who will be affiliated and associated with sports betting that will need to be licensed.” 

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe will need to sign the emergency regulation as the next step in the process, which should also be approved by the Attorney General’s office. 

Preparing for an Earlier Launch

Zimmerman sounded even more optimistic about an early launch in the new year. “Depending on how quickly the process goes with getting the rules to the Governor’s office, getting them signed, getting everything to the Attorney General’s Office, we could be looking at earlier in the summer than we anticipated,” she said. 

Following a meeting with Missouri Gaming Commission Executive Director Michael Leara, Zimmerman disclosed that Leara wants the emergency regulations for launching sports betting in Missouri delivered to the Governor’s office by the end of January, much earlier than planned. 

If all goes to plan and the process is set in motion in the next few days, the MGC could potentially announce a sports betting launch date during the commission’s meetings on May 28 or June 25, 2025. The latest the state can launch sports betting within the current legal framework is December 1, 2025.   

“We’re still talking several months down the road,” Zimmerman noted, but also assured that “The Missouri Gaming Commission is working feverishly to get the rules on the books.”