It had been a while since a state launched sports betting when Missouri sportsbooks began taking their first bets Dec. 1.
In fact, you had to go back 21 months. to March 2024, when North Carolina wisely timed its launch to coincide with the NCAA Tournament. Boosted by a surprising Final Four run by North Carolina State, the Tar Heel State had an impressive debut on the wagering stage with $659.3 million handle.
Nearly 30% of that amount — $202.6 million give or take a dollar or two — was done with promotional bonuses and credits given out by operators. In the nine-plus months of betting in 2024, North Carolina sportsbooks totaled $5.4 billion worth of accepted bets, with $450 million via promotional spend. In the state’s first full year of wagering in 2025, that handle figure climbed to $7.3 billion, while the $221.3 million outlay by sportsbooks represented only 3% of that amount.
That promotional spend for a full year is a notable benchmark because the Missouri Gaming Commission reported promotional deductions totaling $125 million for its opening month. It is not a surprising figure, and it actually could have been more, as some operators reached the maximum 25% deduction threshold. But the MGC also gave us two important wagering breakdowns: by volume and sport, and that allows a look to see what Show Me State bettors found interesting in their maiden journey.
bet365
Handle: $57,790,274
Gross Revenue: $18,281,964
Gross Revenue Hold: 31.64%
Adjusted Revenue: $3,834,453
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $14,447,511 (25%)
The England-based sportsbook had showed previously in other states with simultaneous launches that it will go big, and that held true in Missouri by hitting the maximum deduction threshold. Bet365 was a comfortable third for handle, more than doubling BetMGM and 2½ times larger than Fanatics.
Almost five out of every eight wagers placed were parlays, and bet365 delivered a beatdown of the public with a 36.9% hold in claiming $10.5 million in revenue. The $15.73 average wager for the high volume dragged the overall average wager under $20.
The outsized performance on the multi-leg bets, however, put the book in the positive for AGR despite the notable spend. The $383,445 remitted to the state for parlays accounted for 88.7% of all the mobile operator’s tax revenue.
BetMGM
Handle: $28,055,574
Gross Revenue: $1,997,619
Gross Revenue Hold: 7.12%
Adjusted Revenue: $145,239
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $1,852,380 (6.6%)
BetMGM’s opening-month revenue was dragged down by losses in a pair of categories. Bettors came out $1.4 million ahead in the “other” category while wagering only $845,486, and soccer bettors turned a $68,372 profit on $1.2 million handle.
The book enjoyed a robust parlay performance with a 28.2% hold, absorbing some of those losses as the $1.8 million in win represented 88.8% of total gross revenue. BetMGM bettors were more varied in their wagers; the 230,082 parlay bets represented 45.3% of all bets placed.
BetMGM had a strong overall per-wager average of $55.14. Parlays were nearly half that average at $27.38, while the mean for single-event bets was $78.04.
Caesars
Handle: $14,512,634
Gross Revenue: $2,173,926
Gross Revenue Hold: 14.98%
Adjusted Revenue: -$12,248
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $2,186,174 (15.06%)
Most of us are old enough to remember Caesars’ crossing of the Rubicon, er, Hudson into New York with its introductory offer of $300 in free bets and matching deposits up to $3,000 in January 2022. Alas, the marketplace drastically changed in the nearly four years leading up to Missouri’s launch, and the result was the emperor maintaining the industry status quo.
Caesars’ average wager placed was a healthy $39.42, with the parlay bet landing at $22.80. It was another sportsbook to clear a 30% hold as the $1.2 million in multi-bet revenue was more was 56.8% of all winnings.
If there was one area that may bode well for Caesars, it could be tennis. Its $402,305 handle came with an average wager amount of $214.56. January’s numbers will offer clues if that was some big-time Grand Slam fans with Australian Open futures for January or something else to ponder.
Circa Sports
Handle: $1,425,407
Gross Revenue: $117,394
Gross Revenue Hold: 8.24%
Adjusted Revenue: $117,394
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $0 (0%)
A surprise winner of one of the two mobile-only licenses in Missouri, Circa stayed true to its high-limit, low-hold business model and had a strong first month.
Circa’s per wager averages skew higher because of its philosophy, and that was reflected across the board: average basketball wager $204.43; average football wager $210.92; and average hockey wager $142.45.
Even the average parlay wager was a healthy $79.01, but that is not Circa’s bread and butter. Parlays were only 18.8% of all bets placed, and the $121,591 wagered a mere 8.5% of handle. That balance helped absorb a $7,050 loss in basketball wagering.
DraftKings
Handle: $195,325,843
Gross Revenue: $31,614,428
Gross Revenue Hold: 16.19%
Adjusted Revenue: -$16,915,138
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $48,529,567 (24.85%)
At first glance, one wonders if someone in DraftKings’ accounting department wryly looked at the promotional deduction and went, “Well, we had budgeted $50 million for Missouri and had some change.”
The initial spend by DraftKings is not surprising. It looks a little out of place given the digital colossus had spent November and December scaling back outlay in large-market states while being able to maintain strong handle numbers. Perhaps that was a strategy to allocate for the Missouri launch, but January’s numbers will provide more clues.
The promotional spend was not surprising, but the 6.4 million parlay wagers accounting for barely more than half the 12 million total was a little bit unexpected. Across the river in Illinois, DraftKings had fewer parlay wagers in terms of volume at 5.8 million, but that represented 58% of all bets placed versus 53.3% in Missouri.
Its Missouri numbers also indirectly show the impact of DraftKings’ decision to enact a bet minimum for Illinois bettors who wanted to avoid the wager surcharge versus a universal pass through. It had a $12.33 average parlay wager in Missouri compared to $29.08 in Illinois. In the months from September to December in 2024, DraftKings had monthly average parlay wagers ranging from $14.58 to $17.39 in Illinois.
DraftKings still had a highly favorable outcome regardless the amount of the parlay wager: It kept $1 of every $3 wagered with a 33.2% hold in reaping $26.3 million.
Fanatics
Handle: $22,818,367
Gross Revenue: $2,216,424
Gross Revenue Hold: 9.71%
Adjusted Revenue: -$1,857,234
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $4,073,659 (17.85%)
If there was a surprise in terms of mobile operators and promotional spend, Fanatics’ decision to go much lighter than bet365 may have been the biggest one.
That is in the context of how Fanatics grew by leaps and bounds in 2025 in establishing itself as a No. 3 sportsbook in multiple large-market states and how it has been battling bet365 in Arizona while maintaining a top-five spot there.
Instead, Fanatics’ outlay here looked more like the first-month results from Kentucky’s launch in September 2023. Its outlay was only 4.4% of bet365’s $16.5 million spend in the Bluegrass State; the $4.1 million here is 28.2% and may be even lower given bet365 used its maximum 25% deduction.
This decision could have longer-term repercussions. While bet365 is a well-defined No. 3 in Kentucky, Fanatics is ahead of only Penn Entertainment among traditional sportsbooks.
It is difficult to determine what Fanatics had in terms of bettors and preferences as it appears the Missouri Gaming Commission may have slotted some categories incorrectly. For example, it appears highly unlikely Fanatics accounted for 96% of all baseball wagers with 57,461 given no other mobile book had more than 1,086 such bets. The 289,806 wagers and $8.6 million handle in the “other” category looks more like its parlay statistics given the percentages track alongside other operators.
FanDuel
Handle: $212,699,570
Gross Revenue: $45,989,063
Gross Revenue Hold: 21.62%
Adjusted Revenue: -$7,185,829
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $53,174,892 (25%)
First, let’s take a second to admire everything big about FanDuel’s first-month Missouri numbers: Big handle, big win, big hold, big spend. About the only zero for the month was its tax payment because the big promotional outlay was the only thing bigger than that gaudy win total.
And that final promotional spend figure was probably well north of that max deduction of $53.2 million. FanDuel spent $168.7 million in its Ohio launch, which represented 34.1% of handle. A similar percentage here would be $72.5 million, which sounds reasonable.
In terms of actual wagering, FanDuel was FanDuel. Parlays representing nearly five out of every eight wagers? Check. Eye-watering 36% hold on said parlays? Check. Parlay revenue accounting for nearly 75% of total winnings? Check.
As Agent Smith said in The Matrix, “That is the sound of inevitability.”
theScore Bet
Handle: $6,253,852
Gross Revenue: $1,016,416
Gross Revenue Hold: 16.25%
Adjusted Revenue: $227,590
Promotional Deduction (Percentage): $788,826 (12.61%)
Sometimes the best expectations are when there are none. Such is the case for theScore, which is Penn Entertainment’s third go-round (fourth in some states) to find a sportsbook that will gain traction.
Missouri’s launch coincided with theScore’s launch nationwide following Penn’s decision to end its relationship with ESPN Bet. Thus, it’s unknown if Penn had a Missouri-specific strategy or this was simply part of a nationwide branding launch.
That said, it’s hard to imagine a 1.2% mobile handle market share for the opening month being a successful outcome of any strategy. It again highlights the challenges Penn has faced in trying to claim market share when it comes to mobile sports betting.
TheScore kept pace with other books where it mattered: parlays. It had an average multi-leg wager of $17.30, and the 117,209 bets placed represented 44.3% of all bets placed.
