Missouri voters narrowly back sports betting measure

The state of Missouri has become the latest to regulate sports gambling, after 18 months of regulatory draught across the United States, with no other state having moved ahead with the legalization of sports gambling in the past year and a half.

Missouri becomes latest sports betting state in the US

This now comes to an end as voters in the Show-Me-State chose to narrowly back a ballot proposal that will see sports gambling regulated in the state at long last.

The ballot initiative that was approved by enough voters to pass into law will set a base 10% tax on sports betting activities, along with some deductions that companies will benefit from factoring in their bonus inducements offered to players.

Missouri, which has a population of nearly 6.2m people, managed to pass the measure by mere 7,000 votes, with a total of 3m people voting on the proposal, which secured a thin margin of victory.

Regardless, betting companies’ stock has been buoyed by the news with DraftKings, FanDuel, and others long looking for a way into the Show-Me-State so far as the sports betting market is concerned. FanDuel and DraftKings in particular are said to have spent as much as $41m to support the ballot measure and raise enough support for it.

Even then, this has been a very close call that was mere few thousand votes of coming short and dashing operators’ hopes of legalizing the market in Missouri. Commenting on these events DraftKings SVP and Deputy General Counsel Griffin Finan had this to say commenting for Sporitco:

"DraftKings is excited that voters in Missouri approved Amendment 2 to bring legal sports betting to the state. We want to thank Missouri’s incredible sports fans and all six of Missouri’s professional sports franchises for supporting this important effort to bring sports betting out of the shadows."

Missouri to get one of the lowest sports betting taxes in the US

The measure was placed on the ballot by a coalition of professional sports franchises, among which were The Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs, which argued that the legalization of sports gambling in the state would provide important financial aid to not just the state, but its sports teams.

In the meantime, when the sports betting market in Missouri launches, its proposed tax of 10% will be among the lowest in the United States, giving idea to other states that are yet to regulate their industries.

However, the chances of the hold-out states to move ahead with a regulation move on a ballot are rather slim as the states that have not regulated by now are some of the most conservative in this regard.

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