The worst thing that could happen to a sportsbook happened as William Hill’s app crashed in Nevada just before kickoff. A similar situation occurred in Washington, D.C., as GamebetDC crashed last year for the Big Game.
It Happened During the Busiest Time of the Year
Luckily for the Silver State, there were a few other options for sportsbook platforms. Still, Nevada’s selection of mobile sportsbooks is far less than other prominent markets like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and others. Generally, online sports betting makes up approximately 70 percent of the monthly handles, while other states eclipse the upper 90s.
Intralot-backed GambetDC, the primary sports betting application available in the District of Columbia, experienced a major outage just before the start of a game last year, which was a problem for people using Apple products.
Even after the Super Bowl ended, the app wasn’t working. The outage didn’t appear to affect customers in other states where William Hill is also available.
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. acquired William Hill three years ago for $4 billion. After the incident took place, Caesars barely acknowledged the situation, except for a few tweets. Many customers were unhappy with the situation.
What Is Next for William Hill?
This isn’t the first incident of this kind that happened during one of the year’s busiest days, but an error like this will make it hard to regain a significant amount of lost customers. In 2021, customers experienced a similar outage on Barstool Sportsbook, BetMGM, BetRivers Sportsbook, DraftKings, and FanDuel.
The next biggest non-single-game event will take place in March. Sportsbooks will need to make sure everything is ready during March Madness. The Caesars Nevada sports betting apps have been down for over 40 hours since the major betting event, and there is no indication of when the issue will be resolved.
Caesars officials declined to provide further detail about why the systems only failed in the Silver State. However, one main issue could be that the operator relies on older technology for data and support.
Nevada’s Super Bowl Numbers Took a Hit
Before the Super Bowl, Nevada was projected to be in first place in terms of handle for the game. The projections were $163 million, while New York was expected to finish in second with a total of $152 million.
Obviously, these expectations fluctuate yearly, and Nevada’s Super Bowl handle declined 14 percent, ending with $153.2 million. On the East Coast, the Empire State accumulated slightly over $100 million in bets for the game.
Despite the significant drop, this result was expected to a degree because Arizona became the first legal sports betting state to host the Big Game. During the upcoming Q4 earnings call, the Nevada system crashes are expected to be a significant subject of discussion.
