William Hill reprimanded for misleading adverts

William Hill has been warned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after two of its print advertisements were judged to have breached five codes of practice.

The ruling was in relation to the promotion of specific odds for two horses in separate races which the ASA deemed breached misleading advertising, substantiation, qualification, exaggeration and availability rules.

The ads for Sir Des Champs to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and The New One to win the John Smith’s Aintree Hurdle at 6/1 and 4/1 respectively were published with the footnotes ‘prices subject to fluctuation’ and ‘prices correct at 5pm yesterday’.

Due to weight of money and field changes as a result of non-runners, the advertised prices were both cut less than an hour after being made publically available at 8:30am.

Hills argued the prices were traded upon as advertised on the morning of publication and had also made efforts to warn customers of a potential change in odds.

But the ASA said that as the advert didn’t stipulate when the prices were available from, customers could reasonably expect to be able to secure those odds at various stages during the morning.

In addition, as the odds were available overnight, it was considered that it could be possible for the promoted prices to be unavailable on the day of the press ad due to overnight market forces.

A separate complaint against a Betfair television advert which featured a man sitting next to two friends in a pub has not been upheld after the ASA deemed it didn’t associate gambling with the consumption of alcohol.

The ASA agreed with Betfair’s defence that the ad, which promoted its new ‘cash out’ facility, did not feature irresponsible drinking and that its main target audience are likely to watch football in pubs and place bets via mobile devices.