A Missouri judge rejected a lawsuit Friday challenging the validity of a ballot initiative that will ask Missourians whether to legalize sports betting, meaning the measure will appear on the state’s Nov. 5 ballot.
“Lawsuits seeking to remove an initiative petition from the ballot after it has been certified as sufficient by the Secretary of State are highly disfavored,” Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green wrote in his ruling, which could theoretically be appealed between now and Election Day.
The lawsuit stated that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft used an incorrect method to tabulate the signatures and that the question of legalizing sports betting shouldn’t appear on the ballot. Initiatives in the Show Me State need signatures from 8% of legal voters in 75% of the state's congressional districts, but the lawsuit alleges that the organization behind the proposal, Winning for Missouri Education, didn't actually hit that threshold.
Ashcroft officially approved the proposal, which has the backing of Missouri pro sports franchises like the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs, for the ballot in August. DraftKings and FanDuel have also pumped millions of dollars into the effort to persuade voters to approve sports wagering in Missouri.
Circa NFL Pools Feature Record Payouts
On Saturday, Circa Sports announced that its two NFL prediction contests, Circa Survivor and Circa Million, will pay out a record-setting $20.27 million in prize money, surpassing last year’s prize pools by more than $6 million.
Circa Survivor, where participants pick a team to win straight up each week but cannot pick the same team twice throughout the course of the NFL season, finished with 14,266 entrants (paying $1,000 per entry) and a prize pool of $14,266,000. Circa Million, in which each contestant makes five picks against the spread each week through Circa’s Nevada mobile app or at one of its retail sportsbooks, wound up with 5,817 entrants and a $6 million prize pool.
That $6 million was guaranteed heading in, meaning Circa is on the hook for a $183,000 overlay. But this represents a positive trend for the contest, as Circa covered overlays of $726,000 and $1.3 million in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
