Kansas City Chiefs training camp opened on Tuesday in St. Joseph’s, Missouri with wide receiver Rashee Rice — despite a 30-day jail sentence and anticipated NFL suspension looming — on the field, with two-time MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes back behind center, and with new offensive tools for the bid to prolong the AFC champions’ dynasty.
That’s great news for Chiefs fans, and eventually bettors. But the bettors are going to have to wait, unless they dip across the border or — as is still often the case — into the black market to bet on a team that’s among the top four favorites to win the Super Bowl at most sportsbooks.
Would-be Missouri sports bettors currently have legal options, if they’re motivated or conveniently located enough to exploit them. They make for lucrative options for the neighboring states’ taxation authorities. Seven of eight states bordering Missouri have legal sports betting underway, and all of them except Nebraska have implemented mobile wagering.
Missouri loves company on betting borders
Missouri’s sports betting launch will provide an interesting stress test for both the Kansas and Illinois sports betting economies, because the state is bookended by sizable metropolitan areas with established mobile sports betting markets just over the border.
To the west it’s Kansas City, split from its namesake in Kansas by the Missouri River. (The launch of sports betting in Kansas on Sept. 1, 2022 was an opportunity for geofencing firm GeoComply to document the interest in sports betting from Missouri.)
To the east it’s St. Louis, separated from the Illinois market in East St. Louis by the Mississippi River.
Missouri legalization was no blowout
Missouri voters barely passed an amendment legalizing sports betting in November. And although state regulators and gambling companies nationally have generally targeted the beginning of the money-harvesting NFL season for launch, Missouri sportsbooks are not scheduled to begin accepting wagers until Dec. 1, or in time for Week 14 of the NFL season.
The Chiefs will host Houston on Dec. 7 at 8:20 p.m. ET in the team’s first game legally available to bettors in Missouri.
The Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) confirmed that last week it had received three bids for two untethered sports betting licenses, from national market-leaders DraftKings and FanDuel and popular sharp-bettor site Circa. These mobile-only licenses would be stand-alone entities.
Nineteen “tethered” market-access sportsbook licenses available would be in partnership with one of six professional sports outfits or 13 land-based casinos in Missouri. Underdog has already applied for a tethered license.
The MGC is scheduled to announce the untethered winners on Aug. 15. All mobile licenses come with a fee of $500,000.
A patchwork of partnerships in Missouri indicate anticipated alliances for market access:
- BetMGM has already announced a partnership with Century Hotel Cape Girardeau for entry. The company is an official sports betting partner of the Kansas City Chiefs (as is DraftKings).
- Sportsbook bet365 became the official sports betting partner of the St. Louis Cardinals in March.
- The Kansas City Royals list ESPN Bet and FanDuel as sports betting partners.
