UK online betting giant Bet365 has hung up on its telephone betting business, citing an increasing lack of interest in the service.
On Monday, the Racing Post reported that Bet365 had officially shut down its longstanding tele-betting operations on Monday as fewer and fewer punters were making use of the service. Spokesperson Pat Cooney said tele-betting “had become such a minimal part of our business that it didn’t justify the staffing levels.”
Cooney added that the company had found new positions for all affected staffers, who can probably be identified around Bet365’s Stoke offices by their oversized cauliflower ears. Legacy telephone bettors who fail to get an answer are encouraged to call the company’s main customer service line and transfer their accounts to the digital realm. Or, you know, die already.
Bet365’s decision to axe its phone service leaves few remaining options for punters who prefer the personal touch. For instance, while GVC Holdings’ Ladbrokes brand might still be willing to develop relationships over the phone, the last time Lads mentioned telephone betting in an earnings report was several years ago, and even then it accounted for just £2.7m of total revenue of £662m.
Meanwhile, Bet365’s money-printing digital operations roll on unimpeded by pesky distractions such as global pandemics. A recent survey by marketing researching platform SEMrush found Bet365 crushing its UK competition in terms of the number of site visits by UK punters.
In the month of April, Bet365.com reported nearly 20.9m visits from UK customers, while second-place SkyBet was well back at just under 16m. Bet365 also outpaced the competition in Chile and Brazil, with the site recording nearly 12 times as many visits in the latter market as its nearest competitor Sportingbet.
