The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that Entain brand Ladbrokes has breached its new ‘strong appeal’ advertising rule which prohibits gambling companies from running ads that could potentially appeal to younger audiences.
According to the ASA’s announcement, a tweet by Ladbrokes which included a video featuring Premier League footballers Philippe Coutinho, Jesse Lingard and Kalidou Koulibaly was the major cause of concern. The video featured all three next to a Ladbrokes logo.
In its response to the ASA’s findings, Ladbrokes stated that it had taken the new rule into careful consideration and used Twitter tools that would prevent under 18s from seeing the tweet.
However, the ASA stated:
Premier League footballers were considered high risk within the CAP guidance “Gambling and lotteries: Protecting under-18s” in terms of how likely they were to be of strong appeal to under-18s. Football was an activity in which a very significant proportion of under-18s participated directly on a frequent basis, and had a general interest in through following professional teams and players across a variety of media.
There was also a highly developed infrastructure around organised participation and the sport had an exceptionally high media profile including popular, dedicated media for under-18s. Those who played at an elite level were likely to appeal strongly to children.
The ASA found that had the media been used in another setting where age verification protocols were stronger, the video would have been permitted. But it stated that Twitter’s ‘age verification on sign-up’ was insufficient age-gating in this case.
As a result, it concluded that the tweet broke the new advertising code and warned Ladbrokes that it must not appear again in its current form.
Gambling industry analyst with over a decade of experience working with some of the biggest names in the sports-betting, gambling, poker & casino industry.
