TVG Blames Third-Party Service Provider For Derby Day Crash

Churchill Downs Inc. reported record wagering on the 14-race Kentucky Derby day program on May 7, but the total handle of $273.8 million would have been even  higher were it not for a major technical failure of the TVG advance deposit wagering platform.

Sometime between 3-4 p.m. ET, TVG customers using the company's app starting getting “bad connection” messages or account balances falsely displaying zero dollars for wagering. Horseplayers took to social media for the next several hours complaining they were unable to bet with the app or the TVG website.

The crash was reminiscent of a Kentucky Derby day outage in 2016 when TVG apologized to account holders, citing human error for the failure, and stating “this won't happen again.”

On Monday,May 9, TVG issued the following statement on Saturday's crash:

“We understand and appreciate that the service interruptions we experienced Saturday were frustrating to many of our valued customers and we will be communicating directly with those affected customers over the course of the coming days. TVG takes seriously its place within the racing community and the responsibility it has to deliver the very best fan experience. The issues our app incurred on Saturday did not meet those expectations. We have identified the cause, a technical issue related to a third-party service provider, and are actively making changes to our platform to ensure better performance moving forward.”

TVG and TwinSpires are the industry's two biggest volume advance deposit wagering companies. Churchill Downs Inc., which owns TwinSpires, said it handled $67.4 million on Derby day races at the Louisville, Ky., track. It isn't known how much TVG handled on the Derby day card. Kentucky Derby day is American racing's biggest betting day annually.

TVG is part of the FanDuel Group, the leading sports betting company in the U.S., owned by Irish-based Flutter Entertainment.