Several Entain platforms go down as IT outage sweeps globe

The outage was most felt by businesses using Microsoft Windows software. In a statement issued Friday, CrowdStrike confirmed that the issue was not a cyberattack. Rather, the problems were related to a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.”

The company said it had identified the issue and was working toward resolving it.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” the statement said. “We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”

Multiple airlines grounded flights Friday, causing severe travel delays in several countries. Some TV stations couldn’t air morning broadcasts and hospitals saw disruptions with scheduling and other systems.

Some users were able to come back online but experts warn it could take a long time for others. CNN quoted security expert Kenn White as saying it could “take many, many days for much of corporate America to recover” from the outage.

Entain brands down in UK, US

Isle of Man-based Entain seemed to be the among the most impacted by the outage. The websites for its Ladbrokes, Sportingbet, bwin and BetMGM platfroms were all down as of 1:30 p.m. US Pacific time. All had error messages on their homepages.

Simon Clare from Ladbrokes Coral provided the following statement to iGB:

“Like many global businesses, some of our platforms, including Ladbrokes and Coral, are experiencing temporary IT issues. This is due to an update by a third party, CrowdStrike.

“We are working hard to resolve this, and some systems are back working, and some of our shops are not affected and are back working. We appreciate customers’ patience and are sorry for any inconvenience.”

BetMGM’s site message was a little less crafted: “Something went wrong: Web server is returning an unknown error.” The platform just launched in Washington DC Wednesday (17 July). All of BetMGM’s chief US competitors – FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and Fanatics Sportsbook – had no issues.

Australian brands also impacted

In Australia, TAB and Flutter’s Sportsbet also went down due to the outage. Both companies combine for about 70% of the country’s market share.

As with Entain, TAB said that its online and retail operations were offline. However, the company posted an update at 8:09 p.m. local time saying that its services had been restored.

Sportsbet said on X that “technical issues are disrupting some of our betting services, including customer service.” No further update was posted as of writing.

Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/tech-innovation/platform/several-entain-platforms-go-down-as-it-outage-sweeps-globe/