SBTech-powered sites taken offline by cyberattack

SBTech is close to completing the process of bringing its clients’ websites back online after a cyberattack saw more than 50 sportsbooks powered by the technology provider go offline over the weekend.

iGB understands that SBTech’s monitoring system flagged a potential security threat late Friday evening. This was quickly identified as a serious attack, which prompted the supplier to power down its data centres around the world as a precaution, with third party specialists brought in to investigate.

This affected sites across the world, including Churchill Downs’ BetAmerica brand and the Oregon Lottery’s Score Board product in the US. In Europe, the likes of 10bet, Bet.pt, Bethard, ComeOn, NetBet and Virgin Bet are all currently offline.

While the exact nature of the threat has not been disclosed, technology experts told iGB that the length of the outage suggested it was not a direct denial of service (DDOS) attack.

According to sources close to the matter, the threat itself has now been resolved, with SBTech now coming to the end of a recovery phase in which all services have been rebuilt. All customer data was securely encrypted, and there has been no data breach.

This will be followed by quality assurance checks and testing before it can begin bringing more than 50 SBTech-powered sites around the world back online, subject to regulatory clearance.

iGB understands that its European partners are likely to begin launching before US clients.

A message on one partner’s site suggested that the relaunches would begin by 8AM today (31 March), though all sites remain down for the time being. Sources suggested complications had slowed the process, but that it remained on track to be completed today. 

Amid the suspension of all major global sporting events due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, meant that being offline over a weekend did not result in significant revenue losses for partners.

The supplier is in the process of being acquired by Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corporation and combined with DraftKings, to create a new listed US gaming giant. A special meeting of Diamond Eagle's stockholders has been called for 9 April, to vote on the proposed transaction.

As of 2 April, SBTech's European-facing sites are back online but its US sites remain offline.