Online gambling giant bet365 this week confirmed that it has shut its long-running telebetting (telephone betting) product, the SBCNews reports.

The company said that its decision was prompted by the fact that demand for the legacy service has declined significantly.

Bet365 launched its telebetting offering in 2000 when the online gambling company was founded by the Coates family.

Telebetting had its golden age in the 1980s and 1990s when it was one of the few options available to punters to place bets remotely. With the advent of the Internet and the rapid growth of the online gambling industry, telebetting has gradually become somewhat obsolete.

Nowadays it is mostly offered by smaller independent bookmakers and less so by major multi-brand and multi-product gambling powerhouses.

Following the closure of bet365’s telebetting service, GVC brands Ladbrokes and Coral have remained the only high street bookmakers to be running the service.

Bet365 confirmed this week that it has shut its telebetting number as it could no longer justify staffing levels for that particular product in its portfolio. Bettors were informed about the closure of the service and were told to contact the company’s customer support teams for information on how they can transfer their telebetting accounts to bet365’s digital betting services.

All of the company’s telebetting staff members were relocated to other positions within bet365.

US Expansion and eSports Optimization
Meanwhile, bet365 has recently made several important announcements related to the company’s US expansion campaign and its overall growth.

News emerged last month that US casino operator Century Casinos has teamed up with bet365 to enter Colorado’s nascent sports betting market. Under the terms of the recently signed ten-year partnership, Century Casinos and the British bookmaker will operate a wagering website and a mobile betting app under the bet365 brand.

The US casino operator has already obtained a master license to conduct sports betting activities in Colorado, while bet365 still needs to complete the required application and approval process in order to be able to service players from the Centennial State.

Bet365 entered the US sports betting field last year when it launched a digital sportsbook in New Jersey in partnership with Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.

Earlier this week, gambling technology giant Playtech revealed that it has obtained a transactional waiver from New Jersey regulators to launch its online casino product in the state in partnership with bet365 and Hard Rock. The pending launch will further boost bet365’s offering in the Garden State.

In mid-May, the online gambling operator unveiled another important partnership. It partnered up betting services supplier SIS in a deal that saw the latter deliver its eSports betting product specifically built for online sportsbooks to bet365.

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