■ BetMGM, Fanduel, Draftkings, Betrivers and Barstool Sportsbook had technical difficulties on Sunday.

‘Fumble by the industry’ as several hurt by volume of bets

Super Bowl LV’S betting volumes seemed to be too much for some sportsbooks to handle.

BETMGM, Fanduel, Draftkings, Betrivers and Barstool Sportsbook all reported technical difficulties on Sunday, one of the biggest sports betting days of the year. Experts say the problems are a sign of growing pains in a burgeoning industry.

“Outages are part of life for digital companies. It’s the virtual equivalent of a pipe bursting or a fire alarm going off at the casino,” said Chris Grove, a partner at Eilers and Krejcik Gaming.

“It’s important to remember how rapidly the U.S. sports betting market is coming together. It truly is a plane being assembled in mid-flight. Growing pains — as unfortunate as they may be — are inevitable,” Grove said.

Sunday’s ‘surge in traffic’

In the hour leading up to Super Bowl LV’S kickoff, the backend provider for a number of sportsbook companies — including Draftkings, Betrivers and Barstool Sportsbook — faced intermittent issues that interfered with bet placements.

A spokesperson for the European-based company Kambi said the issue was not caused by the overall load on its system, but rather a high volume of betting on a specific Super Bowl player-related offer.

“This specific problem was quickly identified and rectified ahead of kick-off, at which point Kambi processed the highest ever bet volumes in its history,” the spokesperson said.

Draftkings, one of the partners affected by Kambi’s technical difficulties, confirmed via a statement that some customers were unable to access its mobile and online sportsbooks on Sunday. The company’s customer support Twitter account said there had been issues with bet

placements and viewing bet history in multiple states.

“It appears this outage was caused by a surge in traffic that caused problems for our backend provider,” the statement said. “Our DFS (daily fantasy sports) and pools products, supported by in-house technology, are functioning without issue. This incident is why we believe owning our own technology is important.”

Troubles extended beyond Kambi-backed companies as well.

Flutter Entertainment’s Fanduel tweeted Sunday that customers in Michigan and Illinois were having trouble logging in and placing wagers. Spokespeople for the company did not respond to a request for details on the technical issues or why its systems were not working properly.

Las Vegas-based BETMGM also had difficulties. The sports betting platform, a joint venture from MGM Resorts International and Entain plc, had issues with both the app and retail sportsbooks in Nevada.

Company spokespeople declined to comment on the cause of the outage.

A spokesperson for Penn National Gaming, which owns a 36 percent stake in Barstool Sportsbook, deferred to Kambi when asked for comment. Betrivers declined to comment for this story.

Growing pains

Sara Slane, founder of Slane Advisory, said one issue is likely at fault for Sunday’s outages: a high volume of bettors.

There are seven new betting markets this year compared with last year, allowing 36 million more American adults the opportunity to bet legally in their home state. With access more widespread, the American Gaming Associations predicted that this year’s Super Bowl would generate the largest single-event legal handle in American sports betting history.

But rapid growth often comes growing pains, Slane said, some of which were made evident on Sunday.