Punters rage as TAB meltdown sparks $120 million disaster
Aussies took to social media after a TAB meltdown cost punters the chance to bet and reportedly cost the company up to $120 million in turnover.
Tabcorp issued a public apology following the major technical glitch on Saturday, which prevented punters from wagering on the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival.
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The issue, believed to have been caused by a disruption to the power at one of their server location centres due to smoke or a fire, shut down the TAB's systems on one of the premier days of the spring.
Racing officials around the country delayed their meetings in the hope the problem would be rectified but it continued into the afternoon and evening with many frustrated punters unable to place bets.
South Australia took the drastic step of postponing the final seven races at Morphettville Parks until Monday.
Corporate bookmakers continued to operate, although many were unable to offer exotics as they rely on TAB dividends.
"Tabcorp wishes to apologise to our customers, the racing industry, venues and other partners for the issues being experienced in the delivery of our products and services today," Tabcorp's managing director and CEO, David Attenborough, said in a statement.
"We appreciate the importance of today's race meetings, especially at Flemington and Rosehill Gardens, and are disappointed that we have been unable to give customers the experience the day deserves."
However, the disruption continued into Sunday as late as 3pm.
Apologies for a major technical issue that has resulted in continued outages today. It is understood to have been caused by major power failure at an external data centre which houses Tabcorp servers. We're continuing to deploy all resources on the restoration of full service.
— TAB (@tabcomau) November 7, 2020
The Daily Telegraph reported the cost of the crash could have cost TAB up to $120 million on the weekend.
Racing Victoria frustrated with TAB meltdown
Racing Victoria were upset at the crash on Stakes day at Flemington.
"It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating for this TAB outage to occur on a major group 1 raceday, in particular for the punters who were looking forward to a great Stakes day program at Flemington," Racing Victoria said in a statement.
"We'll be seeking a clear and frank explanation from Tabcorp on how this has happened and what they will be doing to ensure that it doesn’t occur again in the future.
"The impact of this outage will take some time to quantify, but it will be significant."
Fans were fuming they were unable to bet and were concerned over the potential loss of betting incentives on their accounts.
TAB still down. Fair to say the punters are ropable pic.twitter.com/GtSmOBLP2w
— Punters.com.au (@Punters) November 7, 2020
This is totally unacceptable! Missed out on a lot of opportunities yesterday due to funds tied up. At least provide your loyal customers with Bonus Bets.
— high senberg (@highsenburger) November 8, 2020
Money back promo going to be paid out or what? Still waiting....
— Sam Harvey (@harves18) November 8, 2020
Just be honest, seriously this is disgraceful.
— Hawk (@Bluebam927) November 8, 2020
Hey @tabcomau have you tried turning it on and off again? #TABdown
— Thomas Bick (@TommyBick) November 7, 2020
with AAP
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