Sports Betting Sites Crash Following Surge in Demand During Super Bowl Weekend
The anticipation was rising for the 2021 Super Bowl as it drew ever closer. The event, which took place on Sunday, Feb. 7 and saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9, should have been quite the night to bring a variety of new customers to sports betting websites. And it did – masses of them. Unfortunately, the sportsbooks were not prepared for such an onrush, leading to many of them suffering from technical errors and crashing.
It was in Nevada that some of the first problems were experienced, with the BetMGM app crashing ten minutes prior to the Super Bowl kick-off. Despite technicians working furiously to try and fix the bug, the error had not been solved by the end of the game. Those bettors who had found themselves unable to place their favored bets were not in the best of minds, either. Criticism and cursing were both directed vehemently at the BetMGM team.
In fact, as if to rub salt into the wounds even more, one Twitter user reported seeing a commercial for betting brand FanDuel while the game was on. In that Tweet, the user asked, “how is it that I’m seeing fanduel commercials on my television almost rubbing it in that I can’t even place a bet on your app that crashes any time there’s a reasonably large sporting event.”
In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, ads for FanDuel were very prominently displayed on TV. They encouraged bettors to sign up for an account for free play and chances to win rewards from bets. However, the FanDuel app also suffered from issues, releasing a statement afterward that said the outages were intermittent and as a result of demand beyond expectations. The issues with FanDuel were most prominent in the state of Michigan, according to sources.
Related:
Other sports betting apps to suffer outages included the Penn National Gaming Barstool Sports app, with third-party tech issues being blamed, and DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG), which pointed the finger directly at backend provider, Kambi (OTCMKTS: KMBIF). Those two companies are due to amicably separate by September of this year.
It was not all doom and gloom, though, as William Hill LON: WMH and PointsBet both (ASX: PBH) noted that their services were completely unaffected by technical issues during Super Bowl weekend. “It helps being in total control of your technology,” PointsBet CEO Johnny Aitken noted.
More Finance News
RELATED TOPICS: Finance
Latest News
Most Read
Must Read
Interviews
Mikki Mase – The Gambler Who Beat Vegas and Changed the Course of Gambling Forever
Apr 18, 2024
Interviews
Review this New Post
Leave a Comment
User Comments
Comments for Sports Betting Sites Crash Following Surge in Demand During Super Bowl Weekend