Betting sites down after Grand National: Bet365, William Hill, SkyBet and stop working temporarily

Bet365 spokesperson says it had experienced ‘unprecedented levels of traffic’

Andrew Griffin,Zoe Tidman
Monday 11 April 2022 13:54 BST
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Betting site users reported problems following the Grand National on Saturday
Betting site users reported problems following the Grand National on Saturday (Getty Images)

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Many of the UK’s biggest betting sites broke after the Grand National.

Users of Bet365, SkyBet and William Hill all reported problems with their websites.

Visitors saw error messages or pages that failed to load when they checked the site after the race.

The outages come on one of the biggest betting days of the year. Some websites have now come back online, with William Hill working at 7pm on Saturday.

Bet365 was still showing error messages at this time, with users reporting on social media they were unable to log into their account as they tried to cash in on winnings.

Others shared screenshot of a message saying Bet365 was “currently unavailable”. The company’s Twitter account reassured users it was being looked into.

A spokesperson for Bet365 told The Independent on Saturday evening: “Following unprecedented levels of traffic to the Bet365 site, we’re currently experiencing issues that have led to customers being unable to access their account.

“We’re aiming to have the site back up and at full capacity, as soon as possible.”

The Bet365 spokesperson apologised to any customers who had been affected by the disruption and asked them to “bear with us at this time”.

People trying to place bets with William Hill had also reported problems using the app earlier on Saturday. One Twitter user said he was not able to place a bet on a football match and shared a screenshot showing he had been placed in a queue with an estimated wait time of 15 minutes due to “high demand”.

SkyBet, Labrokes, William Hill and Bet365 all saw a spike in reported outages after the Grand National, according to website tracker DownDetector.

William Hill, Ladbrokes and SkyBet have been approached for comment.

Saturday’s Randox Grand National was won by Noble Yeats, who was sent off at 50-1.

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