TWINSPIRES.COM PROBLEMS CAUSE CONTEST CANCELLATION
It was billed as the “Biggest Vegas Qualifier Ever,” but horseplayers who paid $250 to enter Saturday’s TwinSpires.com contest in hopes of getting a berth in the annual National Handicapping Championship might call it the biggest online screw-up since the Churchill Downs-owned wagering platform melted down on Kentucky Derby Day earlier this year.
Midway through Saturday’s 15-race contest, many of the 550 entrants were unable to make their online selections. Instead they got an error message saying “database connection failed; too many connections.” The problem went on for at least five races, and there was no communication from TwinSpires.com to participants. “Obviously, it was not pleasant for the players,” one contestant wrote to the Paulick Report.
Vernon Niven, president of TwinSpires.com and executive vice president of Churchill Downs Inc., told the Paulick Report a decision was made to cancel the contest, refund all entry fees and reschedule the qualifying event as soon as possible. Fifteen berths were scheduled to be awarded for the National Handicapping Championship, to be held in Las Vegas Jan. 23-24. Prize money in that event, sponsored by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Daily Racing Form, is expected to be $1 million.
“We had a database failure with the contest engine that overloaded some queues and caused the login process to freeze,” Niven told the Paulick Report. “Not every player was affected but due to the nature of this we had to cancel the contest and will be refunding everyone.”
No wagers were processed incorrectly, according to Niven, although he said the issue also prevented TwinSpires.com telephone operators from placing wagers via telephone. Some TwinSpires customers not involved in the handicapping contest also experienced log-in problems.
“It’s a huge embarrassment for all of us, and we pride ourselves in our contests,” Niven added. “It’s a slap in our players’ faces. We’ll look at who was affected and how they were affected.”
Saturday’s problem, on top of the Derby Day online wagering malfunction, comes from a company that hired a CEO in Bob Evans with a tech-savvy reputation and has a “think tank” division based in California’s Silicon Valley.
“CDI, which promotes itself as racing’s technology company has failed to deliver,” a contest player wrote to the Paulick Report. “I know I’ll be cancelling my account after this and the Derby Day fiasco.”
“We do pride ourselves on having an outstanding technology team and are working on this as best we can,” Niven said. “We did have problems on Derby Day 2008. That was a different issue – a wagering platform problem. We fixed that issue, as evidenced by Breeders’ Cup Day. This was a different issue. It is one of those things that our guys missed. It was a programming error on our part having to do with database queries that allowed our queues to overflow.
“Our players should not have to worry about that. We are contacting our players to let them know that we apologize and that we will be refunding them within 24 hours.”
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
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Tags: biggest vegas qualifier ever, bob evans, Breeders' Cup, CDI, Churchill Downs Inc., daily racing form, derby day, handicapping contest, internet wagering, kentucky derby, national handicapping championship, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, NTRA, online wagering, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, silicon valley, twinspires, twinspires.com, vernon niven
November 30th, 2008 at 3:36 am
It’s pretty embarrassing when the amount of time in between your two most recent embarrassments is only FIVE MONTHS!
Reminds me of the cartoon about the sign outside the factory, “Number of Days Since Our Last Accident” - and the tote board only goes out to sixty minutes.
November 30th, 2008 at 5:20 am
What do you expect from a company that operates as is the industry is in 1908 and not 2008. I like the excuse given by the CDI official……”The Niv” sounds like he was spinning things so much that he was actually very dizzy. This is a hideous screw-up and those involved should be g-o-n-e.
November 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Why is it so difficult? This is just a sign of how insignificant the efforts are to upgrade technology in this industry. Odds change after races start because the tote companies can’t stop wagers from coming in, and these betting companies get an overload BECAUSE 550 CUSTOMERS are playing in a contest that has been planned for weeks or months.
Please, give me a break! If these guys represent our future we are all in trouble.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I was sick when I read the twinspires cancellation notice this morning. My wife .children & grandchildren were so proud of me making it to las vegas for the nationals. Now they look at me with suspicion….. did I make the whole thing up??? Are we going to have to put grandad in a home? I am sure twinspires & churchill will have to deal with this particular fiasco for years to come. I hope they have wifi at the old peoples home.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Horseplayers are a gullible lot. How else can one explain their willingness to participate in a handicapping contest that is a cash cow for its proprietor? Clearly, if you do the math, it is likely that this contest produces a substantial profit for twinspires.com. Moreover, it has no transparency or third-party accountability.
With regard to Vernon Niven, you may recall that shortly after the twinspires.com meltdown on Kentucky Derby day he received a $360,000 “performance bonus” and then promptly flew around the country and personally fired dozens of low-level employees. He is no doubt a man of honor and integrity (sarcasm intended).
November 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Mr evans is not capable of running a car wash on central avenue,much less churchill downs.
November 30th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
OK so the contest was a bust, get over it. The real problem with Churchill Downs and the horsemen of Kentucky is their failure to come to terms with ADW and acknowledge that it is here to stay. Churchill has some nice races and I’ve had to sit idly by all year without a dollar bet. They gave us a break early in the year and allowed us to bet the Derby on line, as far as I’m concerned, if this is settled next year I might as well skip betting that race too!
November 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Let’s give Churchill credit for a clear and definitive response to the foul up (refunds to everybody) and $20k in compensation to those who placed high despite the screw up.
There is always a chance of this type of thing in an online contest. It’s why you are supposed to make your picks before the contest happens, then edit them as the day progresses.
Chuchill screwed up, owned up, and will make it up with the next contest. The only thing they could have done better was immediate notification to all players via email and a message on the contest screen.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Vicki, let’s be clear it is Churchill Downs that is not resolving the dispute regarding the split of the online revenues. Horsemen have been getting screwed for far too long by greedy tracks. The history speaks for itself. The Horsemen need all of the support we can give them. I salute their strong stand against this gorilla that is Churchill Downs!!
December 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
If it doesn’t directly affect the stock price and net revenue, Churchill really doesn’t give a damn. Get used to it!
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