The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) published a ruling against Coral Interactive after investigating a misleading Euro 2016 promotion. The advert was seen in the national press in June.
The text of the advert stated that players could get a free bet of £5 whenever they have place a minimum bet of £10 on a tournament winner and the latter won. There was a smaller text saying that the promotion was available to both newly-registered and already existing Connect customers in all Coral betting outlets, as well as a small print, which stated that the special offer was available to multi-channel Connect users who use the services of Coral shops.
The complaint against the company was filed by one person who was refused to take advantage of the offer due to the fact that he had a Connect card available for in-shop use only and he was not considered eligible for the promotion. According to them, the ad was misleading because it suggested that all Connect customers of the brand were able to take part in the offer.
Coral Interactive responded to the accusations, saying that there was no error in making the main text of the ad available for all Connect customers. The company also explained that the promotional offer was available to both multi-channel and in-shop users who became eligible after placing the qualifying bet of at least £10, which practically meant that no Connect customers have been denied to take advantage of the promotion or misled.
Coral, however, confessed that the small print stating that the ad all multi-channel Connect customers in Coral outlets were eligible for the promotio was included by mistake and reassured the Advertising Standards Authority that it had taken the necessary steps in order to make sure this would not happen again.
After investigating the issue, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld the accusations against Coral Interactive, saying that the brand’s customers were likely to be misled by the text of the advert. According to the watchdog, the text of the promotion breached CAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.9, regarding Misleading Advertising and Qualification, respectively.
The Authority noted that the small print included in the ad was put there by mistake and appreciated the fact that the Gibraltar-based company took measures to ensure such an error would not happen again. It ruled that the ad must appear no more in its current form and made a recommendation to the company to ensure their future promotions come with qualification terms that are clear enough and would not be misleading to customers.
- Author
Daniel Williams
