The Philadelphia Eagles and their injury-ravaged roster weren’t the only thing hurting on Thursday night.
A malfunctioning geolocation provider caused outages across Pennsylvania and New Jersey online sportsbooks. The issue occurred in the middle of the New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles Thursday Night Football matchup. Customers who wanted to place second-half bets or cash out bets early were unable to do so, since their location could not be verified.
GeoComply, the geolocation provider for sportsbook apps, resolved the issue by the fourth quarter.
Operators respond to geolocation outage
PA’s most popular sports betting apps, FanDuel and DraftKings, kept customers updated via Twitter.
The issue also affected BetRivers.
Geolocation big part of legalized betting
The GeoGuard app or plug-in allows online casino and sportsbook players to access their accounts and wager via browser on desktop or mobile. It allows operators to confirm that a user is within state borders where gambling is approved and regulated. It’s a vital part of the legal online casino and sportsbook industry, since each state has its own rules and regulations.
Online casinos and online poker sites were also affected.
This morning, Elizabeth Cronan, VP, government relations of GeoGuard/GeoComply, provided the following statement to US Poker:
“Last night, we encountered an unexpected network communications error, which our team responded to and remedied immediately. We have alerted all affected clients, and they are aware of the issue and the steps that were taken to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
Giants vs. Eagles betting interrupted
The timing of the NJ and PA sportsbook outage was inopportune, since the Eagles and the Giants are the states’ most popular teams.
Sportsbook apps originally listed the Eagles as 6-point favorites, but the line closed at 4.5 or 4 at some books. The Giants were up 21-10 with 6:17 left in the game, but the Eagles rallied to win 22-21. Pre-game public betting slips showed heavy support for the Eagles. The Eagles failed to cover the spread, and both teams didn’t put up enough points to hit the over (45).
At FanDuel:
- 72% of the money was on the Eagles (-4.5) to cover the spread.
- 61% of the money was on the Eagles (-235) on the moneyline.
- 58% of the money was on the over (45).
At DraftKings:
- 83% of the money was on the Eagles (-4.5) to cover the spread.
- 65% of the money was on the Eagles (-235) on the moneyline.
- 88% of the money was on the over (45).
At BetRivers, Eagles -4 was the most-bet on wager, with 44% of the total game handle. The Birds had 81% of spread bets and 89% of ML bets. Only the ML bets won.
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