Caesars apologizes after outage at company-owned William Hill halts Super Bowl wagering



Two days after the Kansas City Chiefs hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, sports betting operator William Hill US was still offline in Nevada.

Two days after the Kansas City Chiefs hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy, sports betting operator William Hill US was still offline in Nevada after suffering a system meltdown toward the end of the second quarter of Super Bowl LVII, leaving thousands of gamblers on the sidelines during the year’s largest sports wagering event.

The company, which is owned by Caesars Entertainment, commented on Twitter on Monday that it was working to resolve the matter and asked customers for patience.

Gamblers who had placed winning bets online before the meltdown were still waiting Tuesday to receive their payouts. Those who had hoped to bet during the game could not place wagers after the outage.

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Kirk Hendrick said in an email Monday that the agency was aware of the issue and agents from the enforcement and technology divisions were investigating.

A spokeswoman for Caesars on Tuesday provided a lengthy statement from William Hill US, apologizing for the malfunction that crashed both the mobile apps and retail sportsbooks operated by William Hill Nevada.

“The team has been aggressively working to bring the platform back to full functionality as quickly as possible,” the statement said. “We have pinpointed the cause of the system failure and are now working through the resolution with all of our available resources. Unfortunately, as can occur when dealing with a complex, real-time data system, this has taken longer than we had hoped or expected.”

Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill and William Hill Nevada retail sportsbooks were operating as of Tuesday morning, “and we are focused on resolving and restoring the apps,” the statement added.

In Nevada, William Hill has retail sportsbooks, betting kiosks and mobile sports betting associated with more than 100 casinos statewide. William Hill’s operations in other states were not affected.

The outage did not affect Super Bowl wagering at retail and mobile sports betting operations under the Caesars Sportsbook platform.

On Monday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said the state’s sports betting industry collected $11.4 million in revenue and $153.2 million in wagers on the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona.

Caesars’ statement apologized for the inconvenience and asked its customers for patience.

This article excerpt is from the The Nevada Independent. To view the complete story, share and comment, click here.


Sign-up for the OSGA Newsletter!

Every week get news and updates, exclusive offers and betting tips delivered right to you email inbox.