William Hill, Caesars betting apps working again; bonus bets added

The William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook mobile sports betting apps were back in working order Wednesday night after crashing during the Super Bowl.

The apps remained down until late Wednesday when customers received an email from William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook informing them their accounts were available.

The companies said they were offering two $50 bonus sports bets to customers, the first of which was added to accounts Wednesday. The first $50 in bets must be made by Feb. 28 to receive the second, which will be added March 1 and must be used by March 15.

William Hill released a statement Thursday morning apologizing for the technical issues, but did not explain what forced the platforms to go offline.

“We are deeply sorry for the frustration and inconvenience this outage caused our customers,” the statement said. “We thank them for their patience and look forward to brining our new, best-in-class platform to the market in the future.”

Before the apps began to work again, visitors to the William Hill app were greeted with a message on the landing page that reads, “We are currently undergoing our nightly maintenance period. Account access is temporarily disabled. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please try again later.”

The Nevada Gaming Control Board said Monday that board agents from the Enforcement and Technology Division were investigating the matter.

“We don’t have any further information to provide,” Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst for the Gaming Control Board, wrote the Review-Journal in an email Wednesday.

The William Hill and Caesars Sportsbooks apps went down before the start of the Super Bowl, the busiest sports betting day of the year with more than $153.2 million wagered at Nevada sportsbooks alone on Sunday’s game. Caesars’ retail sportsbooks also went down.

As a result, countless bettors were unable to wager on the game leading up to kickoff and through in-play wagering, which allows gamblers to bet while the game is taking place.

William Hill said in a statement Tuesday it “pinpointed the cause of the system failure” and is “working through the resolution with all of our available resources.”

Those who wanted to wager on the Chiefs when they trailed by 10 points at halftime felt especially aggrieved by the technical issues and aired their frustration on social media in recent days. Kansas City went on to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35, winning as 1½-point underdogs.

This is not the first time the William Hill and Caesars Sportsbook mobile betting apps have crashed at an inopportune time.

In September 2021, minutes before the kickoff of nine NFL season openers, the apps went down and bettors were locked out of their accounts until after the games started.

To make up for that inconvenience, the books offered customers two free $25 sports bets.

Caesars Entertainment Inc. completed its $4 billion acquisition of William Hill in April 2021. Unlike the rest of the country, the Caesars Sportsbook app in Nevada uses the William Hill platform.

The Gaming Control Board said last week agents stopped an embezzlement scheme involving a Nevada sports wagering company. Court records showed the alleged scheme was against William Hill, the state’s largest sports wagering company.

It’s unclear whether that case is related in any way to the technical issue that took the apps and retail sportsbooks offline.

Caesars’ retail sportsbooks are back in operation, a spokesperson said Tuesday.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.