Some Betfair adverts have come under scrutiny from the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) aussie-pokies.club. The issue was over two online ads which the watchdog stated had been misleading to clients. The ASA received complaints of a total of three ads, all offering ‘money back specials,’ two of which it upheld.

The offending that is first promised cash back if England lost an organization stage match at the World Cup.

‘WORLD CUP ALL MARKETS ALL CUSTOMERS MONEY BACK IF ENGLAND LOSE IN a GROUP STAGE MATCH IN BRAZIL,’ it proclaimed. But, while the promotion implied it was offering a full money refund, in fact, customers merely received a free of charge bet for the same value of the original stake. Below the ad, terms and conditions claimed that ‘selections in a few markets’ had been excluded from the offer, despite the use of the phrase ‘all markets.’

Meanwhile, the second ad revealed a photo of the British tennis player Andy Murray with the vow of cash back on a new customer’s bet if Murray won Wimbledon. Again, Betfair was just offering a free bet token as opposed to the implied cash refund.

Misleading Language

The ASA ruled that both ads utilized language that had been misleading.

‘We considered that consumers viewing the claims would believe that if England lost, or Murray won, they would receive their initial stake back in money, to be invested as they wished,’ it said. ‘We understood, however, that they would in fact be given a free bet token of the identical value as their original stake (up to a set limit). As that has been maybe not made immediately clear and customers could click on the link to just take the offer up believing they would receive their initial stake in cash should England lose, we considered that the claims had been misleading.’

In its defense, Betfair said that the ‘money back’ promotion is just a tactic widely used by the sportsbetting industry, and cited offers that are similar by their competitors. The company additionally stated that the terms and conditions fully explained the dynamics associated with offer. However, it did concede that the most prominent slogans unsuccessful to create the real nature of this offer clearly enough for clients, and it promised to rectify this in future promotions. Betfair additionally admitted that the phrase ‘full refund’ was a mistake that could now be dropped from all ads.

The ASA praised Betfair’s willingness to amend their ads, but warned the organization from using them in their current form that it must avoid similar mistakes moving forward and banned it.

television Spot Campaign Approved

The watchdog ended up being more accepting of Betfair’s TV campaign, however, which received one complaint. The television spot, which featured a table tennis-playing Octopus, promised ‘money back as a free bet’ if England lose, which the complainant argued had been a contradictory statement.

The ASA disagreed, stating: ‘we considered that because the on-screen text and voice-over clearly stated ‘Money back as a free bet’, 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 whilst we acknowledged that consumers would not receive their initial stake back in cash, but instead as conditional credit. We concluded that the ad was not misleading. because we considered most viewers would comprehend the character of the offer, and would not be prepared to receive their initial stake straight back in cash,’