Sky Bet has closed down its Request A Bet (RAB) service with immediate effect, although its markets will remain live on the Sky Bet platform.
The service allowed Sky Bet customers to tweet a request to the RAB X account for the operator’s traders to price up their bet.
The X account would then reply to the tweet with a link to the market that had been posted on the site.
In what was essentially the precursor to today’s modern bet builders, the RAB service soared in popularity.
While Sky Bet pioneered the product, several other operators followed in the Leeds-based bookmakers’ footsteps.
William Hill launched #YourOdds, Paddy Power went live with #WhatOddsPaddy, while BetVictor’s #PriceItUp and Coral’s #YourCall came soon after.
In 2018, 888 joined the push to align with that year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia with its #marketmaker product.
A statement posted to the Sky Bet RAB X account noted that the inbox is “no longer actively monitored” and that users should contact customer services for support.
The statement read: “Our Request A Bet service is no longer available. This inbox is no longer actively monitored, so we are unable to respond to messages or requests through this channel.
“You can still find a wide range of Request A Bets and specials on site for all major events.
“[X accounts] SkyBet and Sky Bet Help are still available to help you with any other queries you may have. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
RABs will remain live on the Sky Bet app and website across multiple markets, including horseracing, football, MMA, NFL and rugby union.
The RABs will be presented as pre-packaged options, with daily and monthly markets currently live on the site.
An example for Sky Bet’s RAB markets on football today, 1 November, is a cross-match RAB for Bayer Leverkusen versus VFB Stuttgart in Germany’s Bundesliga, Lille versus Lyon in France’s Ligue 1 and Luton Town versus West Brom in the EFL Championship.
RABs on offer include 10+ corners and 40+ booking points in each game (16/1) and more than 1.5 goals and 9+ corners in each game (4/1).
The sustained growth and popularity of bet builders has seen customers engage less with the RAB product.
Posting on LinkedIn, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming SVP of strategic insight Alun Bowden described the closure as an “end of an era”.
“So long RAB, you will be missed in more ways than you realise,” he said.
“Sky Bet is probably doing this for a bunch of reasons. The platform integration with Paddy Power likely makes it a pain in future, there is undoubtedly less and less customer interest in it versus bet builder and it makes it harder to promote your builder when you have a sort of competing product.”
Bowden continued: “But it’s a sad day. This was a product of a different era, when the gambling industry was a bit more fun, took itself a bit less seriously and wasn’t spending all its time justifying its existence.
“But more than that it was a product that came from customer demand and that changed an industry. It was organic, often mispriced, even more often horrific value, always fun to bet on and felt like something that was interactive and more like a game than a sports bet. It changed how people think about betting.”
EGR has contacted Sky Bet for comment.
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