Ain’t It Quaint? Missouri Launch Harkens Back To A Simpler Time

Travel for the purpose of placing sports wagers has been a persistent topic for as long as some states have allowed betting and some haven’t, and it again rose to the surface Monday, when those in Missouri largely rejoiced at no longer having to travel to bordering Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, or Tennessee to get a legal bet down.

But for a gaming journalist located some 900 miles from St. Louis, the traveling I experienced Monday had nothing to do with state lines. Rather, the Missouri sports betting launch functioned more like an exercise in time travel.

I wasn’t traveling terribly far back, mind you. The flux capacitor wasn’t transporting me to the day my parents met or anything.

This was a simple trip back to the years 2019-23. This was a journey to a time when individual states launching mobile sports betting with great fanfare was a routine occurrence.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act on May 14, 2018, New Jersey got out of the gates quickly and launched mobile sports wagering that same year.

But it was in 2019 that the momentum really began to gather. For the next five years — 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 ­— between four and seven jurisdictions went live with regulated digital wagering each year.

It slowed down in 2024. In 2024, Vermont hit the gas that January, followed by North Carolina in March. And that was all, until Missouri came aboard at 12:01 a.m. local time Monday.

Missouri becomes the 39th state to launch a legal sports betting market today. Seven years ago, there was primarily just one.

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) December 1, 2025

And Missouri did so not merely after most of its neighbors already had. It also did so after prediction markets changed the game.

Not so novel

Unlike every regulated mobile sports betting launch that came before it, Missouri gave the green light to eight online operators with its citizens already “legally” able to “bet on sports” from the comfort of their in-state couches.

I put “legally” in quotation marks because the legality of these federally regulated exchanges run by the likes of Kalshi and Polymarket has been challenged in one court after another over the course of 2025. And I put “bet on sports” in quotation markets because these prediction markets sometimes claim their version of allowing people to risk money on the outcome of sporting events is not sports betting.

There are plenty of contrasts between prediction markets and the type of sports betting that debuted Monday in Missouri in terms of legality and in terms of acknowledgement of what they are. But the sharpest contrast — at least on this day — could be seen in the formality of the launch process.

Prediction markets generally do not announce their arrival in accordance with some sort of predetermined checklist. They just show up everywhere simultaneously once approved by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the “self-certifications” begin.

The regulated launch in Missouri therefore felt like a throwback to a bygone era.

Bonuses, codes, and ads

Having not witnessed a regulated launch day since March 2024, I must admit, I felt nostalgia for some of this stuff.

There were Barstool Sports personalities tweeting out their sign-up codes:

MISSOURI – Sports gambling is now LEGAL in your state! New customers – download the @DKSportsbook app with code: STOOLMO and you’ll get $300 in bonus bets when you wager just $5.#DKPartner pic.twitter.com/IblF9SAHH3

— Mike Katic (@KaticMichael) December 1, 2025

There were sports talk hosts like Kay Adams on the ground in “snowy Missouri” to promote the festivities:

Hey MISSOURI!!!!welcome to @FanDuel !LIVE from KC.. it's @UpAndAdamsShow ! pic.twitter.com/vcgrSPnqod

— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) December 1, 2025

There was breathless reporting of historic first wagers:

The first wager in Missouri per Caesar's Sportsbook: 🏒 pic.twitter.com/qkpwiZhLak

— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) December 1, 2025

There were personal anecdotes counting radio ads:

In roughly 45 minutes of driving time today I have heard St Louis radio ads for four of Missouri's eight legal sportsbooks

— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) December 1, 2025

There were folks complaining (before launch, even) about excessive advertising:

Good god the sports betting ads are incessant in Missouri. Every other billboard on 70. Every social media ad. I’m losing my mind

— 𝕡𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 (@payshhh) November 29, 2025

And there were true can’t-lose promos (I know that’s controversial language, but in this instance it applies), with FanDuel offering up a free $50 bankroll-padder on the Patriots-Giants Monday Night Football game:

Sports Betting is live in Missouri. Might shed a tear that I don't have to drive 20 miles west anymore to place a bet. pic.twitter.com/9ActfkKh9V

— Austin (@rondarouseyszn) December 1, 2025

Maybe it’s not the get-rich-quick opportunity that existed in New Jersey or Pennsylvania in their early days, where if you had enough cash on hand to deposit to dozens of sites and max out their bonuses, and if you were game to make a few big arbitrage plays, you could secure several extra mortgage payments at no actual risk. But it’s fun just the same to see what should be a -10000 bet boosted to even money as sportsbooks fight for customer loyalty.

It took a long process to get here. By a margin of fewer than 3,000 votes, legal sports betting passed via ballot initiative over a year ago. Then came discussions of tax rates, submission of applications, awarding of two untethered licenses, formation of partnerships for tethered licenses, preregistration for bettors, various other “i” dottings and “t” crossings, and finally, on Monday, real and virtual ribbon cuttings.

There was something refreshing about it all. Maybe it’s antiquated, establishing a set of rules and then following those rules. And maybe in the long term those who paint within the lines will be left behind.

Still, Monday’s activities and social media excitement served as a welcomed blast from the past. And we should savor it, because we may not feel another blast like it anytime soon.