Technical glitch embarrasses Coral gambling group

Something went spectacularly wrong at the UK gambling group Coral Wednesday when large numbers of players – some claiming never to have had anything to do with the gambling group – started receiving repetitive and intensely annoying text messages offering online betting services.

Despite using the “stop” facility within the SMS messages, the text promos kept coming, with many players reporting that they received six or more mobile text messages within hours.

Some resorted to filing complaints with the Information Commission’s Office, which may have resulted in an apology from Coral Thursday which advised:

“Today, we experienced a serious technical issue and you may have received multiple SMS communications.”

The communication goes on to “…sincerely apologise for this technical error and assure you that we continue to take your data security and preferences very seriously, and that we will take all necessary steps to ensure that this error cannot be repeated.”

Several forums carrying outraged comments from recipients of the original text messages claim that Coral used an out-sourced supplier for the promo, which they identified as the London-based Incentivated Limited.

In the absence of comment from that company it is not known whether the “technical issue” occurred there or at Coral…and how is it that people who claim never to have dealt with Coral received the communication?

This is not the first time that Coral has been at the centre of a row; back in 2013 Twitter lit up with similar complaints.