Sports betting is already popular in the forum by that time. In fact Cloudbet is one of the leading Sportsbook provider since they offer live bets on a match which is still not offered by other bookie. Cloudbet is the first crypto Sportsbook that I use together with Directbet.eu.
Cloudbet started their business in 2013 and they can be one of oldest gambling sites that accept Bitcoin. The announcement thread has a chronological graphics on Cloudbet's history and there is interesting information from 2013 to 2014 but after that till 2017, there is little information during that period.
I don't see information on when sports was included in Cloudbet or it was available at the start of this platform. Do you have any information on it?
Their popularity declined when most of the casino is already offering slot and live games which is already the trend that time while they didn’t update immediately. They just can’t compete anymore with huge casino since they are already late to adopt.
They maybe see it's enough with what they have and don't want to spend new resources (human, financial) to build up new products. Lack of intention to expand their business, if it is, can explain why they don't have good adaptation to latest changes in gambling industry. Depends on their strategy, they can feel fine with it and I don't say it's bad as it completely depends on operators.