00:00All right, let's go over some financial numbers while we have you here, Sam, on the show.
00:03It was a very big deal.
00:04Missouri got sports betting last year, made their debut, got off to a really strong start.
00:09But financially, I'm seeing the numbers dip quite a bit.
00:12I'm not really sure what to correlate this to because it's a unique situation because generally all the markets when
00:19sports betting has become legal has been a really bullish run for about six months.
00:23I mean, it can't be all just associated with the Kansas City Chiefs not being in the playoffs or not
00:29having a good year.
00:30Maybe that's part of it, but it can't be a huge part of it.
00:32Why is the state of Missouri not doing as well as some of the others when they opened up sports
00:37betting?
00:40Yeah, important to note with Missouri, it's important not just for people in Missouri, but it's important because it's the
00:46only state we really had to legalize and launch sports betting this past year.
00:50So it's really only our latest bit of evidence as to how a new market might look, what the trends
00:57are in the overall industry.
00:58And obviously, a lot has been made about Kalshi and Polly Market supposedly cannibalizing some of sports betting and eating
01:05into that.
01:06That's not what the case is here, actually.
01:07Missouri was off to a really good start in December.
01:11Football season obviously was great.
01:12It's slowed down in terms of actual betting since then.
01:16It's down about 50% since launch.
01:19It's one of the sharpest slowdowns we've seen in overall betting.
01:22Obviously, February is a shorter month.
01:24There's less days in it.
01:25There's no football season.
01:26But it is a little bit more of a concern when you look at the revenue that they made in
01:32the state as well.
01:32The operators took about $188 million in revenue total since launch.
01:38But only about $2 million of that has gone to taxes because what they did was just flood the market
01:45with a ton of promotions at the start.
01:48They were very smart to get this written in the law where you can write off all of the promos
01:53you give to people in the state to try to grow sports betting when it launches.
01:57You can write that all off in Missouri from your taxable revenue.
02:00So it really reduced the taxes they pay to the state to really nothing, which could be a huge issue
02:05going forward.
02:06But the betting has dropped off and the total taxable revenue you get in Missouri as well has dropped off.
02:12So it's definitely concerning as we round the calendar.
02:14I mean, we'll get a look at these March figures in a couple weeks now.
02:18I would imagine March badness would have attracted a lot more activity, but not great when you talk about a
02:23new state in Missouri, really just kind of tapering off.
02:26And it seems to be because they had so many promos to start.
02:29And that's not only translating to less revenue for the operators.
02:32It's really hurting the state in terms of tax revenue.
02:34One thing I will note is that Missouri is one of those states that breaks out the betting and the
02:40handle by bet types.
02:42And 37 percent of all the money bet in Missouri was tied up in a parlay somehow.
02:46So it should go to show you how important parlays are.
02:49But while 37 percent of all the money wagered, it was also 70 percent of all the revenue.
02:54So operators made about twice as much from the amount bet.
02:58So another interesting portion here.
03:00But, yeah, we'll see if Missouri gets back on track here.
03:02It's been a pretty, pretty strange story to start the year.
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