Betway slapped with £400k UKGC penalty over West Ham marketing blunder
Operator found to have breached social responsibility rules on child-facing pages of Premier League club’s website
Betway has been ordered to pay a UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) penalty of £408,915 after the gambling watchdog found the operator had breached social responsibility rules.
The breaches centre around the usage of a Betway logo on the children’s section of the West Ham United Football Club website between 14 April 2020 and 6 November 2021.
UKGC investigators found the logo featured on a webpage offering the image of a teddy bear for children to print out and colour in.
In another instance, a Betway logo with a link to the operator’s website was featured on the ‘Young Hammers at Home’ webpage between 24 October 2021 and 15 November 2021.
The actions constituted a breach of Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) rules, and vicariously the responsibilities of a UKGC licence holder applied via the social responsibility guidance codes (SRCP).
Under standards employed by both regulators, marketing cannot be targeted or placed on sites where the audience is made up of underage individuals.
In a summary of the offences, UKGC officials noted remedial action taken by Betway as well as the operator’s cooperation with the UK regulator throughout the investigation period.
UKGC commission director of enforcement Leanne Oxley cited the UKGC’s core purpose of protecting children from gambling-related harm.
“Although there is no suggestion that the operator was deliberately targeting children, or that children had been allowed to gamble, we take the breach of any rules aimed at protecting children extremely seriously,” Oxley said.
“We note the remedial actions since taken by the licensee but advise all operators to learn from this case and ensure that they take responsibility and have the correct processes in place so that websites directed at children do not include advertisements for gambling,” she added.
Betway was censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in January 2020 for breaching rules related to advertising gambling to underage individuals when a YouTube video featuring West Ham and England midfielder Declan Rice was found to appeal to underage individuals.
Later, in March 2020, Betway was hit with what was then the largest UKGC fine over social responsibility and anti-money laundering breaches of the UK Gambling Act 2005.
Betway has sponsored West Ham since 2015.