Trio of operators hit by "misleading" advertising rulings
888Sport, Betfred and Sky Vegas reprimanded by ASA as Paddys is let off the hook for "mass debater" ad
888Sport, Betfred and Sky Vegas have all had adverts censured by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week as issues over misleading advertising continue to cause problems for operators.
One complainant said an ad on the 888Sport website misleadingly omitted a significant condition attached to an offer where enhanced odds applied only to the first £10 of any stake.
The advert “Arsenal to win in 90 minutes 3/1” had a “BET NOW” button underneath and the terms and conditions at the foot of the page.
888 said “the conditions of the promotion were displayed in the terms and conditions available within one click of the page” and since being contacted by the ASA had “amended their marketing to clarify the maximum stake and provided an example of this”.
However, in its ruling the ASA said the maximum stake “was a significant condition that would affect whether or not consumers decided to take up the offer” and should have been in the ad.
Betfred also came under fire for an email promotion offering a £10 free mobile sports bet plus a £25 matched bet linked to the email offer.
The complainant said that offer didn’t make clear that to qualify for the free matched bet, the odds on the first bet placed needed to be “Evens or greater”.
Betfred accepted the ads “might have misled” the complainant by “not effectively communicating” the required odds on the first bet placed, and had subsequently changed the ad.
The ASA said it “welcomed the amendments that Betfred.com had proposed” but ruled that the ad had been misleading.
Two complaints were also lodged over three “£200 Matched Bonus” promotions offered by Sky Vegas, over the terms and conditions attached to the offer.
Sky said that terms and conditions were always one click away, but the ASA said players were “unlikely to understand the complex nature” of the how the bonuses accrued and the timescales involved in accruing them.
“We acknowledged that the landing page arrived at through the ad provided the full T&Cs for the offer. However, they were not seen immediately; it was necessary for users to scroll down the page to access them,” the ASA said in its decision to uphold the complaints.
Finally the ASA decided to take no further action against two complaints against Paddy Power’s ‘Who’s the best mass debater? Clegg 6/4 or Farage 1/2’ ad which ran in the Metro newspaper.
The complainants said the ad alluded to masturbation, and challenged whether it was offensive.
Paddy’s said the ad was meant to be “tongue in cheek” and “intended to generate interest in the around the forthcoming debate in a humorous and irreverent way”.
The ASA decided to take no further action.