Circa CEO Derek Stevens says his company’s online sportsbook will bring its old school, Las Vegas-style of bookmaking to Missouri but also offer an expanded betting menu that could appeal to more casual bettors looking to wager with the sharp-friendlier outfit.
- Circa Sports plans to launch an online-only sportsbook in Missouri on Dec. 1, offering a low-hold, high-volume model aimed at serious bettors.
- While Circa plans to expand its betting menu for its Missouri launch, Stevens emphasized a “reasonable” approach, such as rejecting microbetting.
- Meanwhile, Circa’s response to rising taxes in Illinois, a $10 minimum bet, is intended to maintain its favorable odds and keep bigger bettors playing in the legal market.
The Missouri Gaming Commission announced last week, in a surprising turn, that Circa Sports is in line to be one of the two recipients of an “untethered” license for online sports wagering in the Show-Me State.
So, along with DraftKings, Circa is on course to launch Missouri sports betting on Dec. 1 with no need for a partnership with a brick-and-mortar casino or professional sports team. The company plans to offer its online sportsbook with no ties to any physical location or entity.
NEW: FanDuel has secured Missouri online sports betting market access via a partnership with MLS' St. Louis CITY SC, per release; the deal was announced hours after regulators picked DraftKings and Circa for the two "untethered" licenses; FanDuel set to take bets beginning Dec. 1
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) August 15, 2025
Stevens told Covers in an interview Monday that he didn’t want to be “too presumptive” about what prompted Missouri regulators to choose Circa over FanDuel for the second untethered license, as he doesn’t know for certain.
Holding out hope
However, Stevens did say he thinks a few things about Circa’s Missouri pitch could have resonated with the regulator, such as the operator’s low-hold, high-volume approach to bookmaking.
DraftKings and FanDuel have mastered a bet-a-little-to-win-a-lot, same-game parlay brand of betting, which can produce hold rates north of 10% because those wagers lose more frequently. Nevada-headquartered Circa, however, is happy to take bigger bets and eke out smaller margins. Big bettors who may be wagering offshore could then have an onshore outlet for the action.
“We run a 3% hold market, and I think we can bring in a lot of people that would have continued to bet illegally,” Stevens said. “So, I think that ... was something that hit home with the regulators, that they thought that we would be able to bring home people that don't want to bet illegally.”
While other operators may be successfully “selling lottery tickets,” offering bettors the opportunity to sprinkle $5 for the chance to win big sums, Stevens believes there are still plenty of bettors who just want good odds to wager $500 on a team to win a game, full stop.
This ain't the Cheesecake Factory
But Circa doesn’t plan on just being a home for wayward whales. Stevens also said the operator plans to go live in Missouri with new software for its online sportsbook.
The update, which Circa has been working on for “the last couple of years,” will roll out first in Iowa and Colorado during the football season, then in Missouri when legalized wagering begins.
“It'll have a much larger menu,” Stevens said. “And even when we launch over the course of the next year, it'll continue to evolve, as we're really trying to grow our menu size.”
That raises a question: How does Circa retain its ready-to-take-on-all-comers style if it is going to add more of the betting markets that other operators apply tighter limits to?
Stevens’ answer is that the operator’s wagering options can and should grow, but he doesn’t want to see a “Cheesecake Factory menu,” with every possible sport and type of bet offered.
“I would say, in general, I believe the pendulum has swung too far on a handful of things,” Stevens said.
Microbetting, macro headaches
Those things, in Stevens' eyes, include the amount of player props that are out there. They also include microbetting, or wagering that involves the outcome of the next pitch or play in a baseball or football game.
Microbetting has recently generated some not-great buzz for legalized sports wagering, with lawmakers in New Jersey and Ohio calling for bans amid recent concerns about suspicious wagering in Major League Baseball. The NBA and its players' union have also recently voiced support for more restrictions on player props.
While the worries about microbetting and player props appear to be more focused on ensuring the integrity of games, Stevens suggested another rationale for not trying to offer too many betting markets, which is that it may not be all that profitable for operators.
“If you're going to be a sportsbook and you're going to put a prop up on the eighth guy on the bench of an NBA team, the sportsbook deserves to lose,” he said. “You deserve to get beat, because it's just the hubris to think that you're going to be able to win in the long term.”
With those markets, Stevens said, there is a greater likelihood of people gaining inside information about the outcome. Although the CEO does not sound like he loves the idea of politicians vetoing betting markets, as nixing too many could drive bettors to illegal operators, it’s pretty clear that even a new-and-improved version of Circa’s online sportsbook will remain relatively focused. It's also fair to say it will not offer microbetting.
“We're never going to put ourselves in a position where we're going to take idiotic bets like that,” Stevens said.
The watchword for Stevens could be this, then: reasonable.
“Microbetting is not going to make you hundreds of millions of dollars, plus it's just stupid,” he said. “It's just not reasonable.”
NEW: FanDuel has secured Missouri online sports betting market access via a partnership with MLS' St. Louis CITY SC, per release; the deal was announced hours after regulators picked DraftKings and Circa for the two "untethered" licenses; FanDuel set to take bets beginning Dec. 1
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) August 15, 2025
At any rate, the comments from Stevens suggest the Missouri sports betting market could be competitive and offer a variety of ways for gamblers of all sizes to get down. The fact that Circa is launching in the Show-Me State at all also suggests the company sees the market as more operator-friendly, as Stevens' and Co. are only offering mobile wagering in five other states.
Missouri’s tax rate for sports betting is 10%, which is in addition to the $500,000 cost of a five-year online sports betting license. Those expenses are relatively reasonable compared to the cost of doing business in other states, including somewhere Circa has already launched.
Illinois, in particular, has steadily been increasing tax-related expenses for operators, including a new per-bet tax that took effect at the start of July. Mobile bookmakers have since begun implementing measures to offset those costs, such as transaction fees. In Circa’s case, the operator opted for a $10 minimum wager that will take effect Sept. 1.
Updated per-bet tax responses in Illinois:
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) August 15, 2025
bet365/Caesars: TBD
BetMGM: $2.50 minimum bet
BetRivers: $1 min.
Circa: $10 min. starting Sept. 1 (NEW)
DraftKings: 50¢ fee
ESPN BET: $1 min.
Fanatics: 25¢ fee
FanDuel: 50¢ fee
Hard Rock Bet: $2 min.https://t.co/Z6HFIAmi4P @Covers
The $10 minimum is above what other operators with wagering minimums are doing; BetMGM, for example, is the next closest with a $2.50 minimum. However, Stevens noted that Circa is “a little bit different” in its bookmaking approach, and its response to the per-bet tax reflects that.
“We're known for the best odds and the tightest splits, and we didn't want to change our model and we also didn't want to negatively impact the larger dollar bettors,” Stevens told Covers. “For us, we really don't have that many bettors that bet less than $10 anyway. So our focus was on trying to protect the people that bet more than that.”
Stevens is not a fan of the per-bet tax overall, which is true for other Illinois sports betting operators. Bettors in the state could soon be subject to higher wagering minimum or transaction fees that could influence their betting activity. That could mean nudging bettors toward offshore sportsbooks, sweepstakes operators, or federally regulated prediction markets.
The pendulum swings
Stevens even predicted that the "pendulum" of Missouri residents crossing over into Illinois to make bets could swing the other way when the former state launches event wagering. Illinois bettors could begin crossing into Missouri to make bets and avoid wagering minimums or transaction fees.
“I think it's pretty fair to say there's no sportsbook that wants to enter Illinois at this point,” Stevens said. “Not with this rule set.”
