Head Missouri Gaming Regulator Eyes Mid-2025 Sports Betting Launch

• Missouri Gaming Commissioner Chair Jan M. Zimmerman said she is looking at a mid-to-late summer sports betting launch
• Will take months to get proper rules, regulations, and licensing procedures in place
• Missouri Gaming Commission has already started process

The head of the Missouri Gaming Commission is already eyeing a potential launch window for Missouri sports betting apps and retail betting.

Jan M. Zimmerman, chair of the Missouri Gaming Commission, told Sports Betting Dime that if all goes right the Show-Me State may be able to launch sports betting in the summer of 2025.

“We’re hoping for the summer. There are a whole lot of administrative things that have to happen before we can do that, not the least of which crafting the rules and regulations that will work for us in Missouri,” she told Sports Betting Dime.

Sports Betting Launch in Summer?

Missouri residents narrowly approved Amendment 2 by a margin of just 4,366 votes.

The approval of the sports betting amendment will allow each professional Missouri sports franchise and land-based casino to  be eligible for one retail sports betting license and one online sports betting license each. Each individual team and casino will also be able to partner with up to one online sports betting operator.

In total, the state can see 19 retail sports betting licenses and 21 online sports betting licenses under this framework. It’s expected that FanDuel Missouri and DraftKings Missouri will be among the first to get those licenses.

Missouri must launch sports betting by Dec. 1, 2025, at the latest, but Zimmerman said residents can likely expect to see a launch prior to the start of the 2025 football season.

“Optimistically? Mid-to-late summer…It’s not utmost in our mind that we need to get this done by football, but it’s just that we really need to do our due diligence, check all our boxes, and get all the steps taken care of. If that happens before football season, so much for the better,” she said.

It’s too early to tell exactly how sports betting will roll out in the Show-Me State. Zimmerman said regulators will have to decide the best way to move forward as the process unfurls. It’s unknown at this moment if retail sports betting or online sports betting will launch at the same time, she said, or if state gaming regulators will institute a staggered launch.

It typically takes a state about eight months from sports betting approval to launch. A late-summer launch would keep Missouri on that same timeline.

Work Has Already Started

Zimmerman noted that the Missouri Gaming Commission started to work towards the process of readying the state for the potential legalization of sports betting when the ballot initiative “looked like it had legs” earlier in the year.

“One of the advantages, if there is one, of being relatively late to the game is there are 38 other states that have sports betting. Our folks have been reaching out to their counterparts in order to find out what works, and even what doesn’t work, regarding sports betting,” she said.

Missouri Gaming Commission regulators have already started the process to reach out to other gaming commissions to determine what works well in their markets, how to best streamline the licensing process, and basically what works and what doesn’t work in their states.

Zimmerman wanted to ensure Missouri voters that the gaming commission didn’t “wake up on Wednesday morning and say now’s the time to start our work.”

Working through the process, making sure the state has proper rules and regulations in place before launch, is an utmost priority for the commission, she said.

“It’s not just about making sure the casinos and operators are crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s, but it’s making sure that the person who goes to that business is protected. That’s the reason rules exist, why we enforce them like we do, and to make sure that all the citizens in Missouri are protected against those operators who are not following the rules,” she said.