Ladbrokes reprimanded by ASA over exchange ad
Advertising authority deems £500 of free bets offer to have misled customers
Ladbrokes has been reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a misleading free bets advertisement for its recently launched betting exchange site.
A complaint filed with the ASA contested whether a banner advert on the operator’s sportsbook promoting up to £500 in free bets was treating customers “fairly and honourably”.
To obtain £500 of free bets on the exchange customers must have paid £1,925 in commission to the operator which, given its 5% commission rate, meant customer winnings would have had to stand at £38,500.
“Because of the significant sums of money involved we understood it was unlikely that many customers would qualify for a reasonable percentage of the £500 of free bets for a significant time period, if at all,” the judgement stated.
Ladbrokes defended the banner by highlighting the wording of “up to £500″ on the offer and insisted that it was made clear that terms and conditions applied, with full T&Cs available one-click away from the banner.
The bookmaker also insisted the offer was not meant to be a short-term bonus initiative but a reward for customer loyalty, and that there were no time restrictions on when customers could redeem their free bets.
The ASA, however, considered the assumption from the advert’s wording was a “reasonable proportion” of customers would fulfil the requirement to qualify for a “significant percentage” of the free bets on offer, but only 0.9% of exchange customers received the full £500.
The authority found the advert to have breached nine separate rules of the CAP Code and ruled that the advert must not appear again in its current form, while Ladbrokes was also warned that any future advertising of the offer must include terms and conditions that make clear the extent of the financial commitment needed to receive the free bets.
Last week the ASA issued a similar warning to 888Casino after it deemed an advert promoting £88 of free bets to be misleading, prompting the authority to request that full conditions of the offer to be given extra prominence in future adverts.