Caesars apologizes after system meltdown at William Hill interrupted Super Bowl wagering

Gamblers who had placed winning bets online before the system failure 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.

“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,” the statement said. “We have been in regular contact with our stakeholders and our partners as we work toward a solution.”

In its statement, Caesars said it has been developing and slowly implementing a new sports betting platform throughout the country. The company said the platform performed well in other states.

The business is part of the Caesars Digital Division along with Caesars Sportsbook, the company’s primary sports betting operator that is considered one four largest sports betting operators in the U.S., with business in 18 states and Washington, D.C.

Two hours after kickoff Sunday, William Hill first addressed the issue 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.”

By Howard Stutz