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Techies win big on Grand National
Bookmakers praise IT staff as systems cope with massive demand

By Steve Ranger

Published: Monday 11 April 2005

Leading bookmakers have praised their IT departments for helping them win big in last weekend's John Smith's Grand National.

William Hill said it smashed the records for the number of bets accepted in a single day via internet and telephone in the build-up to the race, with a 71 per cent increase in the number of bets placed.

At its busiest, the bookmaker managed over 25,000 concurrent online users, answered more than 112,000 telephone calls and accepted over 300,000 individual bets across the day.

To make sure its main sportsbook website, www.williamhill.co.uk, was not slowed down by punters setting up new accounts, Hills operated a sister site which handled 30,000 new account registrations.

"We operated without a single hitch throughout the entire day and it is a tribute to all our staff and particularly the IT staff that we have set these new records," said a company spokesman.

Hills claimed its IT director Victor Kemeny had even received a note of congratulations from the head of technology at a rival bookie, which said, "Your infrastructure/technology definitely shone through."

Online betting exchange Betfair said its website also proved "extremely resilient" during one of the busiest days in the horseracing calendar.

It said the day set new records for the site, including peak outbound bandwidth of 143Mbps - up from 110Mbps during this year’s Cheltenham Festival - and took 14,992 calls on the day.

The exchange said 99.9 per cent of bets transacted in less than one second. Betfair’s chief executive Stephen Hill said: "This is thanks to the dedication of our staff and the £30m investment we have made in our technology."