Massive IT Outage Impacts Gambling Operators across the Globe

A number of industries were affected by a global technical issue on Friday. The tech outage impacted banks, hospitals, airlines and even the gambling sector.

Media reports confirmed that the technological outage follows an update by CrowdStrike that resulted in issues for Microsoft users. The massive technology problem caused issues for companies across Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

A recently released report by Just Horse Racing suggests that the Microsoft outage affected TAB, Sky Racing, as well as Sportsbet. Currently, TAB and the Flutter-owned Sportsbet hold more than 70% of the betting market in Australia.

Besides Australia, the IT disruption reportedly impacted companies across multiple sectors in New Zealand, as well as India and Japan.

A statement released by Sportsbet via X, formerly Twitter, acknowledged the technical issues. “Like many organizations, global 3rd party technical issues are disrupting some of our betting services, including customer service. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible,” the company wrote.

The IT Outage Affects Ladbrokes

Elsewhere, this morning, Ladbrokes also reported difficulties due to the global technical issue. The Entain-owned betting operator confirmed via X that the IT outage has affected its online and retail operations.

Ladbrokes said that it is currently trying to resolve the issue. However, the operator did not disclose a timeline for when it is expected to resume normal operations. “Thanks for being so patient and apologies for the inconvenience,” wrote the leading betting operator.

“You might have seen the news about the global technical issue affecting airlines, banks etc. unfortunately we’re experiencing this too. We’re working hard to resolve the issue but don’t know when it will be fixed,“

reads a statement released by Ladbrokes

The operator’s Customer Care team responded to a number of queries posted on X regarding the IT outage. The operator vowed to inform its users once the issue has been resolved.

Some users complained about not being able to withdraw their funds. Others said that they weren’t able to place bets via retail Ladbrokes retail outlets.

It is too early to calculate the financial aspect of the global IT issue. Moreover, it remains unclear how many customers across the globe have been affected and to what extent.