Paddy Power pulls Facebook sports betting app
Social sports betting launch fails to find audience on Facebook platform and will be closed in the coming weeks
Paddy Power’s real-money sports betting app will be pulled from Facebook in the coming weeks after the product failed to live up to the operator’s expectations, eGaming Review can reveal.
Paddy Power In-Play beta launched on Facebook in August 2013 as the first sports betting gambling app on the social network before being re-launched as Paddy Power Social in May.
The product enabled customers to follow friends, copy bets, laugh at bets, and featured other social elements such as leader boards, a news feed, chat and a heat index showing how friends have been performing.
However today Paddy Power confirmed that customers would be informed of the shut down in the coming weeks.
“Over the next few weeks we’ll be discontinuing the Paddy Power Social product. In common with some others launching into the space, we haven’t seen the demand we hoped for on the platform,” a Paddy Power spokesperson told eGR.
The spokesperson added that Paddy Power had “learned a lot” from the social sports betting venture and that there were features it would look to integrate into its core sportbook product.
“Paddy Power is a business that prides itself on innovation and we will continue to make calculated investments behind high potential opportunities,” the spokesperson said.
The operator’s decision to launch a gambling product on Facebook was designed to complement its leading position on the social network, on which it has more than one million followers.
It appointed former Playfish and EA producer Ben O’Donnell in May 2013 to lead the project and had been developing a mobile app version of the product before the end of the year.
Paddy Power reported successful growth of Paddy Power Social player numbers during the World Cup, during which it recruited controversial footballer Joey Barton for a marketing push.
The demise of Paddy Power Social mirrors the apparent failure of almost all other real-money gambling apps launched on Facebook to date with 888 recently pulling its Magic888 Casino app from the social platform.