Petitioners submitted signatures Thursday to get sports betting on the Missouri ballot

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri petitioners will submit their signatures to the Secretary of State's office Thursday afternoon to get sports betting on the November ballot.

The petitions were led by Missouri's six professional sports franchises. Team representatives will speak today along with representatives from Winning for Missouri Education at the Secretary of State's Office.

Winning for Missouri Education supports the initiative's petition to legalize sports betting in the state to help fund public education.

Data from GeoComply shows that the desire for sports betting in Missouri is strong and growing. During Super Bowl weekend, more than 431,000 bets were blocked in Missouri for people trying to access sports betting in other states.

The location detection software said this was a 51% increase over the 2023 Super Bowl.

Of those blocked bets, 48% attempted to access sports betting in Kansas, and 37% attempted the same in Illinois.

After petitions to legalize sports betting in Missouri were filed Thursday, the secretary of state's office must certify the signatures. The petition requires signatures from 5% of legal voters in six of eight electoral districts to be included on a statewide vote.

Once questions are put to the vote, a simple majority is required.

Missouri lawmakers have been trying to pass a sports betting law for years. Although it was previously passed by the Missouri House of Representatives, the Senate failed to reach an agreement.

If approved by voters, the petitions would make it legal for Missouri residents to place bets on professional and college teams through casinos or platforms like Draft Kings and FanDuel. Fans could also place prop bets.

Signatures for the initiative petition must be submitted to the Secretary of State's office on Sunday. Other petitioners are also submitting signatures asking their questions about the November ballot.

This comes as lawmakers seek to pass an initiative petition reform that would make it harder for voters to get their questions on the ballot.

Check back for updates.