DraftKings adds another $5m to effort to legalise sports betting in Missouri

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission website, DraftKings and FanDuel have now staked the campaign with a combined $14m, compared to the $4m that Caesars Entertainment has contributed to the opposition. That campaign is called the ‘Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment’ and, as of Tuesday, no new donations had been recorded.

Missourians in November will have the opportunity to vote on whether or not they want legal, digital sports betting. The issue has been hung up in the state legislature for at least five years. In 2023, the state’s professional sports teams, led by the St Louis Cardinals, began to explore a ballot initiative. The proposal was approved for the ballot by the secretary of state in August and survived a legal challenge in early September.

Polling shows moderate support

The proposal has the support of professional sports teams and digital operators, including the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA). BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics Sportsbook and DraftKings are SBA members. The state’s land-based casinos are not on board.

Should the initiative pass, the casino companies would be entitled to one skin, or platform, per company. In legislative proposals, they would have been able to have one skin per location, up to three. Caesars, Penn Entertainment and Boyd Gaming all have multiple brick-and-mortar casinos in Missouri.

Recent polling shows that a majority of Missouri voters support the initiative, Fox 2 Now reported on Tuesday. The news outlet wrote that 68.4% of those surveyed in the 30-39-year-old age range would support it, but that by the time pollsters reached the 60-69 and over-70 age groups, support fell below 50%.

Emerson College Polling/The Hill conducted the polling. The group surveyed 850 “very likely” voters between 12-13 September. The political breakdown of those polled was 262 Democrats, 356 Republicans and 232 independents or other.

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