Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over Vince Lombardi and the official report of Super Bowl sports wagering revenue in Nevada reached approximately $153.2 million, exactly two days later, sports wagering operator William Hill US was still off the grid in Nevada due to system failure towards the end of the second quarter of Super Bowl LVII.
The consequences of this unplanned system failure were huge, as a large number of bettors were left out throughout the biggest sports betting event of the year.
However, Caesars released an official statement explaining the cause and apologizing to gamblers.
Working hard to resolve the issue:
Two hours after Sunday’s Super Bowl officially began, William Hill US addressed the issue for the first time on Twitter: “We are aware of an issue affecting users in NV. Our team is looking into this, and we hope to have a resolution as soon as possible. We will provide any updates here as they become available.”
After that first tweet, the next one was after the Chiefs won against the Eagles with 38-35, which read: “We are currently in the process of settling all Super Bowl wagers. We appreciate your patience.”
The problem is still not solved:
Then, on Monday, William Hill, owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment and based in London, UK, tweeted the following that “the company is working hard to resolve this issue and is currently seeking understanding from its customers.”
However, bettors who placed winning bets online prior to the system outage were still waiting to be paid on Tuesday. Unfortunately, punters who wanted to bet throughout the game were unable to bet after the system failure.
In this regard, in an email on Monday, Kirk Hendrick, Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman, said: “The agency was aware of the issue and agents from the enforcement and technology divisions were investigating.”
The cause of the problem has been identified:
A spokeswoman for Caesars offered a lengthy statement from William Hill US on Tuesday, stating that “the company is 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. 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.
“While we move as expeditiously as possible, we also do so with an abundance of caution to ensure that we do not exacerbate or repeat the issue and that when we bring the platform back up, it stays up. We have been in regular contact with our stakeholders and our partners as we work toward a solution.
“We have also been developing and slowly implementing a new sports betting platform throughout the country and the platform performed well in other states. With Nevada being our longest-tenured state, it is important that our new platform is battle-tested. We look forward to bringing it to Nevada as soon as possible.”
Only the William Hill Nevada branch was affected by the system failure:
The William Hill Nevada branch owns retail sportsbooks, wagering kiosks and mobile sportsbooks connected to more than 100 casinos across the US and all were affected by the system failure except for the retail and mobile sports wagering operations operated by the Caesars Sportsbook platform.
However, the company’s subsidiaries in other US states continued to operate as normal.
About:
William Hill Nevada is part of the Caesars Digital Division together with Caesars Sportsbook, the company’s main sports wagering operator, one of the top 4 sports wagering operators in the US, with operations in 18 states and Washington, D.C.
In 2021, Caesars purchased UK-based William Hill for $3.7 billion. After a year, it sold the European subsidiaries of Hill to 888 Holdings for $2.6 billion.
