Ladbrokes online overwhelmed by betting demand

The British press is currently reporting that the Ladbrokes betting sites went down temporarily earlier this week on one of the busiest betting days of the year – the confluence of Grand National horse racing and the Scottish and English FA Cup football semi-finals.

The website was reportedly overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of online punters, resulting in uncharacteristic payout delays.

One internet sports gambler commented: “I placed a winning bet on Saturday and had it settled only 24-and-a-half hours after the event. Normally, bets are settled with the hour, even on the big days. Many clients need their return to continue betting, so the knock-on effect would have been huge.”

However David Williams, a spokesperson for Ladbrokes, said that not all payments were delayed. He explained that the company has around 85,000 regular internet punters who generate large numbers of bets, and commented:

“Only a very small proportion of our customers were affected, less than one percent. We pride ourselves on providing a market-leading customer experience and apologise to those affected.

“Along with several of our competitors we experienced some technical problems on Grand National day due to the very high volume of traffic.”

Bets in excess of GBP 200 million were placed on the Grand National horse race, and the Ladbrokes site was not the only one to experience problems. Paddy Power spokesman Darren Haines, gave a sense of perspective, saying: “It was the equivalent of 2000 people trying to get into a betting shop at the same time.”

Betfair spokesmen noted: “We had some difficulties with payments and withdrawals as the volume was significantly up on last year.”