Amazon’s AWS cloud computing service unit crashed earlier this morning, affecting millions of systems across the globe. Among the affected companies included several popular sports betting sites in the US.
The crash, which took place before dawn on the East Coast, has affected multiple websites like Facebook, Venmo, Snapchat, and more.
But it’s also affected the country’s two biggest sports gambling sites: FanDuel and Draft Kings.
Both websites put out a statement in the morning via their social media accounts.
‘Good morning everyone! Please note that some withdrawals are still slow to process due to the outage overnight. We appreciate the patience!’ read a tweet from Draft Kings’ support account.
FanDuel’s customer support account tweeted something similar: ‘Good morning. We are aware that users are currently having trouble logging in and fully accessing our platform. Our team is actively investigating and working toward resolution. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience in the meantime.’
The crash which has affected Amazon’s AWS cloud service is hampering sites globally
American sports betting site FanDuel is still managing issues with accessibility to their site
The same could be said for the other major American sportsbook, Draft Kings
It’s not just American sports betting’s ‘Big Two’ that were going through issues. Fanatics Sportsbook put a tweet out via their support account to reveal they had problems too.
While the companies have worked to improve the issue, it’s left many bettors in the lurch – having no luck in accessing their accounts, placing wagers, or withdrawing their funds.
‘Can’t see the bet I just placed either. Always something. Took my money though,’ one user said in reply to the FanDuel tweet.
One bettor told the Fanatics account, ‘7 losing days in a row. Wanted to place a bet on a tennis match this morning and couldn’t do it and of course it won. Considering moving everything over to ESPN Bet since they aren’t down at all.’
‘Yeah my $70 balance has disappeared lmao,’ read another response to FanDuel
Another angry FanDuel customer said, ‘Ya better give me my money back.’ A different response simply asked, ‘Where is my money?’
At 6:35am ET, Amazon said the underlying issue has been ‘fully mitigated’, adding that ‘most operations are succeeding normally now’.
However, the outage continues to wreak havoc around the globe, with millions of customers still experiencing issues accessing their favorite sites.
Jake Moore, tech expert and security advisor at ESET, thinks the huge outage is likely due to an ‘internal error’ at Amazon, but said we can’t rule out a cyberattack at this stage.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘While a cyberattack can’t be ruled out until AWS releases its full post-incident report, there’s no current evidence of hacking, data breaches or coordinated attacks.’