The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that a Ladbrokes tweet featuring Jake Paul may have appealed to minors.
The promoted tweet in question was posted by Entain-owned brand Ladbrokes in February 2023. It featured an image of Jake Paul following his defeat by Tommy Fury with a caption stating “So, we’ve got to ask the question… What’s next for Jake Paul? Vote here now”.
There was then a poll with the options “Win the re-match”, “Head to the MMA”, “Return to YouTube”, and “Join the WWE”.
The ASA challenged if the ad breached its code as it included an individual who was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.
In response to the investigation, Ladbrokes stated that there was no call to action for any of its gambling related products or services. It also claimed that as Twitter ensures that ads by gambling companies are age-gated, it had not breached the code. The tweet was targeted towards users who were aged 25 or older.
Despite Ladbrokes assertions, the ASA ruled:
The ASA expected advertisers to provide evidence that they had identified what persons or characters were generally known for outside the context of an ad, and had used appropriate sources of data and information to assess their likely level of appeal to under-18s. Because the ad had appeared in a medium where under-18s could not be entirely excluded from the audience it needed to comply with that rule.
We considered that boxing was an adult-oriented sport and one that had low appeal to under-18s. We also considered that Jake Paul would primarily be known for making YouTube videos and that he had a large social media following. We acknowledged that he had within the last few years turned to boxing. However, because of his career on YouTube, we considered that he had a high profile within the sport and was well known outside of the sport and social media.
The ASA also noted that Paul has around 3 million followers on social media that are minors. He also appeared on a Disney show in recent years making him highly recognizable to under 18s.
In its summation, the ASA noted:
For those reasons, we considered that the ad was irresponsible and breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.1, 16.3 and 16.3.12 (Gambling).
Ladbrokes has been warned that the ad must not appear again and that any future marketing must not include people who may appeal to minors.
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.