An IT outage significantly affected businesses utilizing Microsoft Windows software on Friday. CrowdStrike issued a statement clarifying that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack but was instead linked to a "defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." Later that evening, the company reported it had identified the issue and was actively working to resolve it.
The statement expressed, "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are backed up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."
The outage resulted in multiple airlines grounding flights, leading to substantial travel delays across several countries. Several TV stations experienced issues with morning broadcasts, and hospitals faced interruptions in their scheduling and other systems.
While some users managed to regain access online, experts have warned that recovery could take considerable time for others. Security expert Kenn White was quoted by CNN, predicting it might "take many, many days for much of corporate America to recover" from the incident.
Among the most affected was Isle of Man-based Entain, whose Ladbrokes, Sportingbet, Bwin, and BetMGM platforms experienced downtime, displaying error messages on their homepages by 1:30 PM US Pacific time.
Simon Clare from Ladbrokes Coral commented on the situation, stating: "Like many global businesses, some of our platforms, including Ladbrokes and Coral, are experiencing temporary IT issues. This is due to an update by a third party, CrowdStrike. We are working hard to resolve this and some systems are back working and some of our shops are not affected and are back working. We appreciate customers' patience and are sorry for any inconvenience."
BetMGM's website displayed a less polished message: "Something went wrong: Web server is returning an unknown error." Notably, BetMGM had just launched in Washington DC on July 17. In contrast, all of BetMGM's chief US competitors—FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN Bet, and Fanatics Sportsbook—reported no such issues.
By Sunday, July 21, Entain's operations were reported to be back online, as indicated by a BetMGM message on social media announcing the resumption of normal operations.
In Australia, the outage similarly impacted TAB and Flutter’s Sportsbet, which together hold approximately 70% of the country's market share.
TAB confirmed that its online and retail operations were offline but later updated at 8:09 PM local time that its services had been restored. Meanwhile, Sportsbet noted on X that "technical issues are disrupting some of our betting services, including customer service," but did not provide further updates at the time of reporting.
