Missouri Sports Betting Ballot Initiative Faces Hurdles
Transcript
00:00All right, well, one change in the legislature in Missouri is that this guy who's just totally
00:08against sports betting there is not going away.
00:11So the deadline is tomorrow.
00:14So Pat, what's going to happen tonight?
00:16Well, I mean, I'm getting ready here.
00:18Should we just buckle up, get some popcorn and get ready for filibustering to the end
00:22again?
00:23No.
00:24So thankfully, we're not talking about the legislative route this time.
00:27That's the good thing for Missouri.
00:30We're talking about the ballot here.
00:31You know, they've had this ballot initiative.
00:33The Cardinals came out, said we're going to go around Senator Denny Hoskins, the man you're
00:37talking about, who has filibustered at length at times, including an eight hour reading
00:43of Ronald Reagan's biography.
00:46That was a wild night, as you can imagine.
00:49But so this has been in progress since last fall.
00:52They got 300 and some thousand signatures.
00:54All they needed was 170, but those were all certified by local election boards.
01:00That had to be done by earlier this month.
01:02By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures.
01:07What's the difference?
01:08I'm not entirely sure, but it's all part of this very specific process that needs to be
01:12done.
01:13If that's verified and all good to go, it will be placed on the ballot in November.
01:19Now here's where it gets kind of crazy and what I've been hearing from sources, nothing
01:22official yet, because if you're going to go against it, you have to file something
01:27with the Secretary of State and you start seeing the opposition there.
01:32But there is a significant opposition party kind of floating about that people say could
01:37make a huge dent.
01:39I am working on a story and hopefully get some real verified sources here and we can
01:43talk about it next time I'm on.
01:45But it could be a real danger to this ballot initiative come November because it is a significant
01:51player in the industry in Missouri.
01:54So that's a big thing that's kind of floating out there.
01:57Now the good thing for this ballot initiative is FanDuel and DraftKings are all in and trying
02:02to get it done.
02:05One source suggested that they might try to drop out because the polling's not super great.
02:12It might be kind of a toss up at this point in terms of what the vote will be in November.
02:18And so they're saying if you swing and miss, you're done.
02:21If the public support's not there and they show it and demonstrate it at the polls, then
02:26you go into the next legislative session and the people who were supportive of it in the
02:30legislator, not named Denny Hoskins, will say, well, you know what, the public didn't
02:35want it.
02:36Why are we going to put so much effort to get it done?
02:38So Missouri remains this just fascinating state of what could happen.
02:44You know, a couple people have made great points, you know, DraftKings and FanDuel are
02:49multi-million dollars into this endeavor.
02:51So why would they just drop it?
02:53Because it's, you know, there might be some opposition again.
02:57We'll see.
02:58We'll see what happens.
02:59It's going to definitely be a couple of interesting months to your point, Q4.
03:02I mean, Canada right now has the only market on the, you know, launch pad, I guess you
03:08would want to call it.
03:10Missouri could be there if it passes in November.
03:14But so that's kind of all eyes on Missouri when you're looking at U.S. sports betting
03:18and kind of the optimism of the industry right now is kind of laying on that state.