Glitches related to a software update from global cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike caused a worldwide IT outage for several industries Friday (19 July), including airlines, hospitals and media. On the gambling side, multiple Entain platforms were forced offline.
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.
12-hour timelapse of American Airlines, Delta, and United plane traffic after what was likely the biggest IT outage in history forced a nationwide ground stop of the three airlines. pic.twitter.com/wwcQeiEtVe
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) July 19, 2024
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.
BetMGM is experiencing temporary issues due to global IT outages.
We are working hard to resolve this and will update customers when we are up and running. Thank you for your patience.
— BetMGM Customer Care (@BetMGMCare) July 19, 2024
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.
The global outage is now resolved and we are back to normal service 🏇
— TAB (@tabcomau) July 19, 2024
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.
