Betfair money back ads banned by ASA
Advertising regulator says England World Cup and Andy Murray Wimbledon bet refund offers were "misleading"
Betfair was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority today over two “money back” offers with the regulator calling the promotions misleading and banning them from appearing again in the same format.
A box on the top of the “Football” tab on the website featured a picture of Betfair’s octopus with text that stated: “World Cup “ all markets “ all customers money back if England lose in any group stage match in Brazil.”
A similar advert ran on the Betfair home page for Andy Murray during Wimbledon, which featured a picture of Murray and text that stated: “2014 Wimbledon “ first bet only money back if Murray wins.”
Two complainants challenged whether the claim “money back if England lose” was misleading because they understood that customers actually received a free bet token, while another challenged the Murray advert for the same reason.
Another complainant also challenged whether the claim of a “full refund” on the England ad was misleading because customers actually received a free bet token.
Betfair said that a money back promotion was a “promotional mechanic widely used in the gambling industry” and that due to lack of space they ran text that said “money back” instead of “money back as a free bet” as the term was well understood by the average gambling users.
The online operator also pointed out that the ads were linked to a pop-up box which contained the full terms and conditions of the advert and as it was not possible to take part in the promotion without seeing the pop-up message, they believed the ads were not misleading.
However Betfair also acknowledged that the ads did not make it sufficiently clear that the stake was returned as a free bet, and said they would ensure similar ads would “would make clear the nature of the money back offer in future”.
In its decision to uphold the complaints the ASA said it “welcomed Betfair’s willingness to amend its ads” but found that “money back” or a “full refund” was not a strictly accurate way of explaining the offer, so ruled that the ads were misleading and that they should not run again.
The ASA did however chose not to uphold another complaint that the claim “all markets” in the England ad was misleading.