Advertising Standard Agency (ASA) Sends Warnings to William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair for Displaying Inappropriate Ads

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has issued a warning to two big operators. Namely, William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair were found to have displayed adverts on the “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem” app which were deemed to be…

…inappropriately targeted to an underage audience. The questionable ads, first shown in February 2019, were both said to have encouraged s to deposit funds in order to play arcade games or receive a complimentary bet.

Not in Accordance with Guidelines

When fronted with the ASA ruling, William Hill initially confirmed that they believed the ‘ad did not appear to be in accordance with advertising guidelines.’ However, the further inspection and correspondence with the Tapjoy that was in charge…

…of promoting the gambling adverts, confirmed that age-restrictions had been put in place to minimize the potential of exposure to an underage audience. The problematic advert for Hill displayed the following:

“William Hill Vegas – Deposit and bet £10! 1. Open the William Hill Vegas app. 2. an *. 3. Deposit and bet £10**”. Smaller text stated “Application install is optional and reward won’t be provided in connection with an application install. *Offer not available to anyone that has ed before with any William Hill product. **You must bet a minimum of 10 to get your currency. Offer only available to first time depositors.”

Having Measures or Not?

The other operator, Betfair, stated that they had measures in place to prevent exposure to persons under the age of 18. Furthermore, the supplier added that they ‘went to great lengths to ensure that by requiring new customers to go through a verification process to set up an . They said that the ad was placed by Tapjoy, Inc.’ The advert stated:

“Betfair Bingo: , deposit funds and play Bingo. 1. Simply as a new with Betfair. 2. Deposit a minimum of £10. 3. Play arcade games!”. Smaller text stated “+18 T&Cs Apply. *Offer open to new Betfair s only”. Beneath this was a button that stated “Earn [gem emoji] 3126”

Adjusting Behavior

After a complainant raised the issue that the two ads were inappropriately targeted, the ASA ruling warned the operators that:

“the ad must not be used again without further, specific targeting to minimize the likelihood of under-18s being exposed to it.”

The ruling regarding Betfair further explained that the operator informed Tapjoy that ads were only suitable for persons over 18 with either a ”mature” or “mature-plus” rating. Following the receipt of the complaint, they discovered that the publisher of the app had erroneously opted in to accept advertising content at a “mature-plus” level for the app.

Betfair immediately corrected the issue upon receiving the complaint, by terminating the collaboration with Tapjoy. Hill has responded to the ruling in a similar manner, having acknowledged that it shouldn’t have appeared regardless of who was at fault. They had blacklisted the app and would not place ads in it in the future via Tapjoy or any other .

Source:

“ASA warns two over “inappropriately targeted ads”, casinobeats.com, June 19, 2019.