Bet365 has symbolically end an era of sports betting this week when it shut down its telephone betting services in the UK, according to a report on the Racing Post. It’s a legacy service that, frankly, has been lucky to hang on this long. Regardless, many a punter will likely have a few fond memories of the joys of calling in wagers from landlines.
Of course, not many folks have landlines these days and large share of all sports wagers are placed online. Consequently, the service just wasn’t cost-effective. Bet365 Spokesperson Pat Cooney described the axing in a manner suitably bereft of emotion saying, “Telephone betting had become such a minimal part of our business that it didn’t justify the staffing levels. Everything is online nowadays.”
But what about the folks who spent their days waiting for calls from punters that were becoming increasingly rarer every day? Fortunately, Bet365 is redeploying them to different parts of company. Cooney explained the situation saying, “All staff have been found positions elsewhere. We’d been considering our position for the last couple of months and finally shut down telephone betting on Monday.”
But, more importantly, what will become of those remaining phone bettors? Bet365 is a gambling operator after all and customer acquisition isn’t cheap. Cooney didn’t seem too worried about them saying simply that they are welcome to come back as online players.
And just like that, there aren’t many folks in the UK who can call in a wager into anybody. The age of the phone bet is completely done.