The start of legal sports betting in Missouri has gone very well - even better than many expected.
Key Takeaways
- GeoComply tracks sportsbooks customers and bets by their location.
- 188,000 Missouri sportsbook accounts were preregistered in the two weeks prior to launch.
- Analysts were forced to adjust their projections following Missouri’s early sports betting turnout.
Missouri sports betting was legalized on the November ballot a year ago. It took over a year to get the market to operational status, but the state finally accepted its first legal wagers just after midnight on Dec. 1.
The first wagers largely involved local teams. Circa Sports CEO Derek Stevens, whose platform received one of two untethered operators’ licenses, revealed that the first bet in Missouri was a moneyline wager on the St. Louis Blues to beat the Anaheim Ducks.
Caesars’ first wager also included the Blues in a $5, five-leg NHL moneyline parlay at +1,337 odds.
Together, Missouri’s first legal bettors smashed the expectations set for the new market. Analysts were forced to increase their short-term forecasts, even with NFL results leading to negatively adjusted first-year projections.
BetMissouri, with the help of geolocation firm GeoComply, projects the state can generate the following figures during the coming days and months:
- Dec. 1-7: $73,229,220 (+11.5% compared to its initial estimation)
- Dec. 1-31: $292,916,880 (+11.5%)
- Dec. 1, 2025 - Nov. 30, 2026: $3.515 billion (-9.4%)
Eye-popping totals
Missouri’s first-month totals will eventually be released by its gaming commission.
Even without the exact total, plenty of signs beyond the $73-million figure indicate the market is already a success. One of those is the 10,000 active sports betting accounts that were tracked to Arrowhead Stadium for a Sunday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans on Dec. 7, less than one week after the market went live.
That number jumped to 43,000, per GeoComply, during the Chiefs’ matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 14.
In total, GeoComply recorded 2.6 million location checks for more than 250,000 active sports betting accounts, 188,000 of which were preregistered, across the state.
The upcoming calendar is also one of the best periods for sportsbooks. The College Football Playoff begins Friday, the NFL is still in full swing, the NBA Cup final took place Tuesday, and the NFL playoffs will begin in less than a month.
Mahomes’ injury deals a blow
Unfortunately for Missouri football fans and sportsbooks alike, bettors won’t have the opportunity to support Patrick Mahomes in another foray to a fourth straight Super Bowl appearance.
The megastar QB tore his ACL and LCL during Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, while the Chiefs dropped to 6-8 and were eliminated from playoff contention.
States with sports teams that go on deep postseason runs typically have strong performances. Ironically, this will be the first time since 2014 that the Chiefs won’t participate in the playoffs and the first time since 2018 they won’t play for the AFC title. The team's unexpected down year is a key contributor to BetMissouri's annual handle projection being more than 9% lower than its original estimation.
