Missouri’s launch of legalized sports wagering later this year could mean the end of a “significant” source of customers for Kansas sportsbooks, which are the Show-Me State gamblers traveling across the state line to make bets in the Sunflower State.
The blow to business could be exacerbated if Kansas were to shift to a sole sportsbook or higher-tax model as well. That, at least, was the warning issued on Monday to the state legislature’s Special Committee on Federal and State Affairs.
- Missouri’s upcoming launch of legalized sports betting on Dec. 1 could reduce Kansas’s wagering revenue, as Missouri residents currently cross the border to place bets.
- Kansas lawmakers are debating changes to their sports betting framework, including the possibility of switching to a single-operator model.
- Negotiations for Kansas sportsbooks were put on hold due to recent legislative restrictions, creating uncertainty about the future of the state’s betting setup and potential operator availability.
Stephen Durrell, executive director of the Kansas Lottery, said at one point during his committee testimony that “population centers” drive the majority of betting, such as the action in the northeastern and south-central parts of Kansas. It is in northeast Kansas where Kansas City lies, half of which is located on the Missouri side of the border.
“We do get a significant number of folks that come over from ... the Missouri side and place wagers,” Durrell said. “And that will continue until we hit when Missouri goes online with their sports wagering.”
The launch of Missouri sports betting is scheduled for Dec. 1, Durrell noted.
“So we’ll see how that affects us,” he added.
Ticking time bill
Legal and regulated Kansas sports betting launched in September 2022. Approximately $7 billion has been bet since then at the state’s legal sportsbooks, including with its seven mobile operators.
However, that wagering, and the tax revenue derived from the 10% levy on bookmakers (Durrell said the state collected $17.4 million during its 2025 fiscal year), is being generated in a world with no legalized sports betting in Missouri. That will change on Dec. 1.
Meanwhile, an appropriations bill passed earlier this year tied the hands of the Kansas Lottery, restricting it from negotiating sports betting-related contract extensions.
Durrell said on Monday that the lottery was even approached by a sportsbook operator last year about extending their contract, “which isn’t abnormal,” as operators want to make longer term plans. However, the “proviso” was then passed, and so the lottery has not negotiated any new contracts or had additional talks on those topics, the director added.
“So those will be upcoming,” he said. “At some point during the 2026 calendar year, we'll have to start having those discussions, just because all of [the contracts] are going to expire in [2027], dependent on legislative input or change to the way that the statute exists now.”
Just want to clarify: None of the leading OSB operators in Kansas will go dark as a result of today’s vote. Most contracts with the lottery run well into 2027.
— Jeremy Kudon (@JKudon) April 11, 2025
Since contracts won’t expire until Sept. 1, 2027, there is no immediate threat. Still, it appears some state lawmakers want to increase the tax take from sports betting, and could propose changes to how legalized wagering is done in Kansas.
One possible model kicked around has been a single sportsbook contract with the lottery, such as what New Hampshire and Oregon have done by partnering with DraftKings exclusively.
“Where the lottery … does a direct contract with a platform, we see tremendously increased revenues to the state,” Republican Rep. Francis Awerkamp said during Monday’s meeting.
Asked by Awerkamp for his thoughts about whether that sort of model would be a better way to maximize revenue for the state, Durrell said that it would be up to the legislature, not him.
Even so, Durrell suggested that there could be differences between Kansas and other jurisdictions, such as their laws, that could explain why some have gone the monopoly route. That said, the director noted there is nothing in the Kansas constitution that would prohibit a direct partnership between a sportsbook operator and the lottery.
“When you start comparing states to states, they're very rarely apples-to-apples comparisons,” Durrell told the committee. “A lot of time they’re apples-to-oranges comparisons.”
NEW: Current list of Missouri mobile sports betting applicants that have applied ahead of today's deadline and could go live on the Dec. 1 launch, state regulators tell @covers:
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) September 12, 2025
bet365
BetMGM
Circa*
Ceasars
DraftKings*
ESPN BET
Fanatics
FanDuel
Underdog
*Already earned license
Whatever route Kansas goes (and it could just be the status quo), Missouri's path is set. That will include the launch of online sports betting brands currently operating in Kansas, but that may exit the Sunflower State if it were to go to a sole sportsbook or higher-tax model.
Ryan Soultz, vice president of governmental affairs for Boyd Gaming (operator of the Kansas Star Casino near Wichita), said during Monday's meeting that Kansas has “done quite well” with its current wagering model. He also gave the committee more Missouri-related thoughts.
“I think the other thing you have to keep in mind is that if you were to go to a single platform sort of model, which is what you've discussed, I think the state of Kansas runs a risk of seeing a lot of the folks that have migrated over from Missouri to place their wagers start to migrate back over to Missouri once that goes live, when their favorite app is no longer available here,” Soultz said.
A similar phenomenon, he warned, could happen if Oklahoma ever legalizes sports betting. Then, Oklahomans driving toward the Wichita area to make bets may no longer do so, especially if their favorite app no longer exists in Kansas.
“From our perspective, you may actually shrink the market if you went down to one platform,” Soultz said. “Now, do you get a bigger percentage of revenue from that one operator? Sure. But does the market contract because people no longer have their favorite app to bet on?”
So there is the possibility that the Missouri launch, coupled with a contraction of the Kansas sports betting market, could send business the other way, from Kansas to Missouri.
Scott Ward, an attorney appearing on behalf of the Sports Betting Alliance (the members of which are bet365, BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel), said mobile sports betting is "a very small margin business."
Ward suggested that if costs for operators go up, they will have to reduce spending elsewhere, such as in promotions for customers. He gave the example of a Kansan wanting to bet on Monday Night Football not getting offered the same profit boost as a user in Missouri.
"The less you spend on marketing, the less you spend on promotions, the smaller the market is going to be," Ward said.
A predictable predicament
Lobbyist John Pappas, appearing on behalf of the iDevelopment and Economic Association, an industry group representing operators and technology suppliers, said the state's current tax rate is working. Missouri, he noted, will also utilize a 10% tax rate for sports betting operators.
"Right now, Kansas benefits greatly from Missouri not having legal sports betting," Pappas told the committee. "We see thousands of bettors crossing state lines on a weekly basis into Kansas to place those bets. We may either lose those bettors entirely, or, if Kansas raises their [tax] rate, we may lose Kansas bettors going into Missouri where they can find better odds, better pricing, and more competitive markets."
Pappas said the same could be said for a single sportsbook model for mobile wagering. He pointed to the District of Columbia's "very failed experiment" with a similar structure, which the local government ultimately decided to scrap in favor of a competitive market.
But a Missouri launch isn’t the only challenge facing the Kansas sports betting market. As in other states, Kansas sportsbooks must contend with offshore operators, sweepstakes casinos, and federally regulated prediction markets.
Soultz mentioned that these “third parties” are trying to get into the sports betting business, and warned the state could push people toward them by going to a single sportsbook model.
“There are new, emerging issues surrounding sports wagering where third parties are trying to get into this space,” he said. “And so you create almost an incentive for people to maybe move or migrate over to an unregulated, new, emerging market for sports wagering or event trading … that the state of Kansas has captured today through the platforms and those that are contracted with the lottery.”
