{"id":24349,"date":"2014-09-08T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T05:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=24349"},"modified":"2014-09-05T01:52:50","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T01:52:50","slug":"betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24357\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24357\" data-style=\"width: 382px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-24357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair.png\" alt=\"Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair\" width=\"382\" height=\"211\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-24357\"class=\"text-description\">Betfair\u2019s table tennis-playing Octopus; the ASA ruled that the TV campaign was not contradictory, but banned two \u201cmisleading\u201d online ads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some Betfair ads have come under scrutiny from the UK\u2019s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The issue was over two online ads which the watchdog said were misleading to customers. The ASA received complaints about a total of three ads, all offering \u201cmoney back specials,\u201d two of which it upheld.<\/p>\n<p>The first offending ad promised money back if England lost a group stage match at the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;WORLD CUP &#8211; ALL MARKETS &#8211; ALL CUSTOMERS MONEY BACK IF ENGLAND LOSE IN ANY GROUP STAGE MATCH IN BRAZIL,&#8221; it proclaimed. But, while the promotion implied that it was offering a full money refund, in reality, customers merely received a free bet for the same value of their original stake. Below the ad, terms and conditions stated that \u201cselections in certain markets\u201d were excluded from the offer, despite the use of the phrase \u201call markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the second ad showed a picture of the British tennis player <a title=\"Andy Murray - mirror.co.uk\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/andy-murray\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Murray<\/a> with the promise of money back on a new customer\u2019s bet if Murray won Wimbledon. Again, Betfair was merely offering a free bet token as opposed to the implied cash refund.<\/p>\n<h2>Misleading Language<\/h2>\n<p>The ASA ruled that both ads used language that was misleading.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p>\u201cWe considered that consumers viewing the claims would believe that if England lost, or Murray won, they would receive their original stake back in cash, to be spent as they wished,\u201d it said. \u201cWe understood, however, that they would in fact receive a free bet token of the same value as their original stake (up to a set limit). As that was not made immediately clear and consumers could click on the link to take up the offer believing they would receive their initial stake in cash should England lose, we considered that the claims were misleading.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In its defense, Betfair said that the \u201cmoney back\u201d promotion is a <a title=\"Seductive Gambling Ad Banned by ASA - casino.org  June 2014\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/uk-gambling-ad-labeled-seductive-banned-asa\" target=\"_blank\">tactic<\/a> widely used by the sportsbetting industry, and cited similar offers run by their competitors. The company also claimed that the terms and conditions fully explained the dynamics of the offer. However, it did concede that the most prominent slogans failed to make the true nature of the offer clearly enough for customers, and it promised to rectify this in future promotions. Betfair also admitted that the phrase \u201cfull refund\u201d was an error that would now be dropped from all ads.<\/p>\n<p>The ASA praised Betfair\u2019s willingness to amend their ads, but warned the company that it must avoid similar mistakes moving forward and banned it from using them in their current form.<\/p>\n<h2>TV Spot Campaign Approved<\/h2>\n<p>The watchdog was more accepting of Betfair\u2019s TV campaign, however, which received one complaint. The TV spot, which featured a table tennis-playing Octopus, promised \u201cmoney back as a free bet\u201d if England lose, which the complainant argued was a contradictory statement.<\/p>\n<p>The ASA disagreed, stating: \u201cWhilst we acknowledged that consumers would not receive their initial stake back in cash, but instead as conditional credit, we considered that because the on-screen text and voice-over clearly stated \u2018Money back as a free bet\u2019, viewers would understand the offer and appreciate that if their bet met the stated conditions, they would be awarded their initial stake in the form of a free bet. Because we considered most viewers would understand the nature of the offer, and would not expect to receive their initial stake back in cash, we concluded that the ad was not misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some Betfair ads have come under scrutiny from the UK\u2019s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The issue was over two online ads which the watchdog said were misleading to customers. The ASA received complaints about a total of three ads, all offering \u201cmoney back specials,\u201d two of which it upheld. The first offending ad promised money [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":24357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) finds that online betting operator Betfair ads used misleading language in their &quot;free bet&quot; ads.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) finds that online betting operator Betfair ads used misleading language in their &quot;free bet&quot; 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the ASA ruled that the TV campaign was not contradictory, but banned two \u201cmisleading\u201d online ads.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog","description":"UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) finds that online betting operator Betfair ads used misleading language in their \"free bet\" ads.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog","og_description":"UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) finds that online betting operator Betfair ads used misleading language in their \"free bet\" ads.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2014-09-08T05:30:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-05T01:52:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":699,"height":291,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/","name":"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair.png","datePublished":"2014-09-08T05:30:14+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-05T01:52:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) finds that online betting operator Betfair ads used misleading language in their \"free bet\" ads.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Octopus-playing-ping-pong-Betfair.png","width":699,"height":291,"caption":"Betfair\u2019s table tennis-playing Octopus; the ASA ruled that the TV campaign was not contradictory, but banned two \u201cmisleading\u201d online ads."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/betfair-ads-banned-uk-advertising-watchdog\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Betfair Ads Banned By UK Advertising Watchdog"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}