(STL.News) St. Louis hasn’t had an NFL team since the Rams left after the 2015 season, but this fall the city has something it never had during the Rams years: legal sportsbook apps on every phone in town, plus a steady stream of bonus offers. Missouri’s market opened on Dec. 1, 2025, halfway through last season, which makes this the first full NFL season in which every Chiefs Sunday arrives wrapped in Missouri-specific offers. The ads promise $150 here and $200 there, and the instinct worth bringing to them is the same one STL.News urged Missouri business owners this month, when a mailer asked $92.25 for a certificate the state sells for $10: look at what you are actually being offered before you pay anything.

Contents

What the Missouri offers look like right now The catch in nearly every offer Why the offers look the way they do in Missouri A checklist before you claim anything

The offers are not identical, and the headline number rarely tells you what the deal is worth. Readers who want to see the current welcome offers laid out side by side, with minimum deposits and expiration windows listed next to each other, can compare betting promotions on RotoWire’s tracker before signing up anywhere. Treat it as a reference, not a recommendation: the point of comparing is to find the catch, not the biggest figure.

What the Missouri offers look like right now

Eight mobile sportsbooks report figures to the Missouri Gaming Commission. Their welcome offers in early October follow a handful of common designs.

DraftKings: spend $5, receive $150 in bonus bets.
bet365: bet $10 and receive $200 in bonus bets whether the first wager wins or loses, provided it is placed at odds of minus 500 or longer. The bonus bets expire after seven days.
BetMGM: up to $1,000 back in bonus bets, paid out as a $100 token each day for 10 days, each token expiring after seven days.
FanDuel: bet $5 a day for five days and receive $50 in bonus bets each day, up to $250 in total.

Caesars and Fanatics run their own versions, with Caesars handing out five $50 “bet reset” tokens and Fanatics paying in FanCash, a credit that can also be spent on team merchandise.

The catch in nearly every offer

The most misunderstood phrase in sports betting advertising is “bonus bets.” A bonus bet is not cash. If you place a $50 bonus bet at even money and it wins, you receive $50 in winnings, not the $100 you would get back on a cash bet, because the stake itself is never returned. A $200 bonus package can be worth a good deal less than $200 in real money once that is accounted for.

Expiration windows are the second trap. A seven-day clock on each token means a customer who signs up during a busy week and forgets about the app can lose the credit entirely. Spreading a bonus over 10 days, as BetMGM does, or five days, as FanDuel does, is also a way of bringing a new customer back to the app every day, which is the real business purpose of these offers.

Then there are odds restrictions. Requirements like “minus 500 or longer” exist to stop customers from qualifying with a near-certain bet. They are reasonable, but they also mean the qualifying wager carries genuine risk.

Why the offers look the way they do in Missouri

Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 in November 2024 by fewer than 3,000 votes, about 50.1% of nearly 3 million ballots cast. The amendment set a 10% tax on sportsbook revenue, with the money directed to education, and allowed both mobile apps and retail books at casinos and pro sports venues.

The commission’s August report gives a sense of scale. Missourians wagered $207.5 million that month, the lowest monthly total since launch, with $204.3 million of it placed on phones. DraftKings took $83.5 million of that handle and FanDuel $59.8 million, which goes some way toward explaining why both brands lean so hard on new customer offers as football season ramps up. The state collected $1.68 million in tax for the month.

Missouri’s rules also limit what is on offer. Online casino games remain illegal here, so any app or ad promising slots or blackjack for real money to a Missouri resident is operating outside the law. Customers must be 21 and physically located in the state to place a bet.

A checklist before you claim anything

Before tapping “claim” on any sportsbook promo this season, run through a short list.

Read whether the bonus is paid in cash or bonus bets, and remember bonus bet winnings exclude the stake.
Note how long each credit lasts and set a reminder if you intend to use it.
Check the minimum odds and minimum deposit required to qualify.
Decide on a monthly budget before you deposit, and treat any bonus as part of that budget rather than an addition to it.
Confirm you are dealing with a sportsbook licensed by the Missouri Gaming Commission.

Anyone who finds betting has stopped being entertainment can call the state’s free helpline at 1.888.BETSOFF. The commission also keeps a sports wagering self-exclusion list, created in 2025, that blocks enrollees from betting with Missouri sportsbooks online and in person for five years.

The Rams aren’t coming back, and the bonus offers aren’t going away. The St. Louis bettors who come out ahead this season are more likely to be the ones who read the expiration date than the ones who chased the biggest number on the screen.

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