Flutter US brands hit with “unscheduled” outage
Ex-Stars Group brands slammed by social media users following three-state suspension
Several of Flutter Entertainment’s US-facing brands have been taken down following an “unscheduled maintenance issue” which impacted the firm’s operations across three states.
Brands affected included the real-money FOX Bet, PokerStars, and Stars Casino apps, which were inaccessible to users in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
EGR has learned that the sites affected were taken down on Friday afternoon when the issues were identified and have still not resumed operation.
However, players are able to access their respective accounts, make deposits and withdrawals, with only gameplay and betting affected by the outages.
The FOX Bet Super Six app, in which users can win prizes for guessing correct scores in six NFL matches, was unaffected by the outage and has maintained full operation throughout.
It is understood that technology teams have been working on rectifying these issues throughout the outage period, with FOX Bet’s customer services team responding to affected players promptly, with no backlog.
Despite the communication, the brands’ users in affected states took to Twitter to express their ire at the weekend closure.
This is an unacceptable response that as customers we can only use the cashier services? Sounds like y’all shutting down and taking our money with the bets that are still active pic.twitter.com/DY9qmVAZW5
— Shantel Montalvo
(@ShantelMontalv1) February 5, 2022
Nothing on this crappy site is working! Last night my bet mysteriously disappeared on a winning slip and their support has no records of it. The “BOOM your bet has been placed,” even popped up. Time to withdrawal and stick with the other books!
— Josh Crouch (@jcrouch023) February 4, 2022
https://twitter.com/Marc29278974/status/1489749901936406552
@FOXBet @FOXBetCare You still have not provided any update since your last tweet which is a couple of days old! Site is still down without any explanation! It would be nice if you can start to communicate more so users know what to expect! The silence is deafening!
— Jr Lawrence (@Larbear68plus1) February 6, 2022
EGR has learned that FOX Bet, as well as the other affected brands, began a program of “beefing up” its customer services response on social media platforms, including Twitter, starting at the weekend as misinformation began to circulate online that the unscheduled maintenance was in fact, a data breach or cyber-attack.
In a statement provided to EGR, FOX Bet VP of communications Eddie Motl acknowledged the downtime experienced by consumers, suggesting that social media posts surrounding any potential data breach or related event were “totally false”.
“Our sites are currently down due to an unscheduled maintenance issue and our tech team is working hard to get them all back up and running ASAP,” Motl said.
“Customers across all verticals (FOX Bet Sportsbook, PokerStars, and Stars Casino) can still manage their accounts. We do not anticipate any impacts to customer account balances – this is not a data breach.
“We thank customers for their patience and apologize for this inconvenience,” he added.
Flutter’s other US brands, FanDuel and TVG, are understood to have not been affected by any outages.
Update: Flutter has confirmed that its brands ~(FOX Bet, PokerStars and Stars Casino) are now back on line in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan in an update on Twitter.
— FOX Bet Care (@FOXBetCare) February 9, 2022