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When sports betting launches in Missouri on Dec. 1, eight of the state’s 13 casinos could offer retail sportsbook wagering – with all but one of the candidates in the state’s two major metro areas.
Applications for mobile and retail licenses, which were due on Sept. 12, included four St. Louis casinos:
- Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles (Fanatics Sportsbook)
- Hollywood Casino and Hotel St. Louis (Penn Entertainment/ESPN BET)
- Horseshoe St. Louis (Caesars)
- River City Casino and Hotel (Penn/ESPN BET)
Two of those applicants, Hollywood and River City, advertised sportsbook job positions in August, even before Penn Entertainment had put in their tethered license bids.
A trio of Kansas City area casinos have also put their hats in the ring for retail sports betting licenses, including:
- Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City (Fanatics Sportsbook)
- Argosy Casino & Hotel (Penn/ESPN BET)
- Harrah’s Kansas City (Caesars)
The only other casino in the mix is Century Casino & Hotel Cape Girardeau in the southeast corner of the state, bordering Illinois and about 40 miles from the Kentucky border. That property is affiliated with BetMGM.
All four sportsbook operators vying for retail licenses have also applied for mobile licenses. Two operators already have mobile license applications approved and in the pipeline: DraftKings and Circa Sports, which were granted the two untethered mobile licenses on Aug. 15.
No presence in stadiums?
A provision in the Missouri sports betting law, approved by voters last November after finally succeeding on the legislative level, allows for tethered license applicants to either affiliate with a casino or a Missouri pro sports franchise, and a pair of hopefuls have gone the sports franchise route.
Those entrants are bet365, which announced a partnership with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball in March and FanDuel, which announced its arrangement with Major League Soccer’s St. Louis City SC just days after it was passed over for an untethered mobile license.
Despite the presence betting partners have in some Missouri stadiums, including the bet365 Bridge – a ticketed outdoor seating deck at the Cardinals’ Busch Stadium – none of the sportsbook operators have applied for retail licenses to operate within the stadium itself.
DraftKings operates a sportsbook adjacent to Chicago‘s Wrigley Field, to cite a regional example, and Washington, D.C.’s sports betting laws allowed for bettors to wager at stadium-based sportsbooks, though FanDuel shut down its Audi Field location in early 2024 after just four years of operation.
Of course, those betting on sports are more likely to use their phones than enter a retail sportsbook. In Illinois, per IllinoisBet, nearly $844 million of the approximately $862.5 million in July 2025 sports betting handle was mobile, whereas the month before, about $935 million of the $957 million wagered was online.
