Kindred's Maria Casino TV ad under fire in Sweden for misleading claim
Regulator concludes “Sweden’s most popular gaming site” claim is misleading and cannot be proved
Kindred Group’s Maria Casino brand has fallen foul of regulators after the Swedish Consumer Ombudsman (RO) ruled its latest TV ad was misleading.
The complaint relates to a claim made in the 20-second short that “Maria Casino is Sweden’s most liked gaming site”. One individual complained this suggestion was unproven.
The complainant later confirmed with the operator’s customer service team that this claim was based on consumer reviews on the Maria Casino website.
Spooniker, Kindred’s Swedish-licensed subsidiary which powers the Maria Casino brand, also suggested the claim was backed up by independent research.
In its response, Kindred provided data collected by Swedish customer research company Nepa AB on 1,660 customer gambling habits during Q1 2020, which showed Maria Casino to be the most popular online casino brand, allowing them to make the claim.
Despite this, RO asserted the claim was unsubstantiated because the research only considered online casino operators.
“The advertising ombudsman finds that an average consumer is likely to perceive the statement ‘Maria Casino is Sweden’s most popular gaming site’ as the advertiser is Sweden’s most popular [operator] among the players that offer gaming services on the internet,” RO said in a statement.
RO has the power to scrutinise Swedish commercial communications, but can not order the withdrawal of adverts. Instead, the ombudsman provides guidance to operators who can then interpret this and make any changes.
In addition, RO questioned the reliability of the survey, saying it had not received any evidence from Kindred to support the claims.
Based on this assesment RO claimed the advert was misleading and reported this to Kindred Group, leaving it up to the operator to implement changes.
Responding to RO’s findings, Kindred Group confirmed to EGR that it would change marketing materials to be fully compliant with its guidance, changing the slogan “Sweden’s most liked gaming site” to “One of Sweden’s most liked casino sites”.