The main advertising regulator in the UK scolded Paddy Power for an ad featuring an unclear and unintelligible voiceover announcement of the terms and conditions of its offer.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a radio ad for the Flutter Entertainment-owned sportsbook services heard on December 12th, 2021. The advert promoted the Bet Builder offer of Paddy Power but, according to the complainant, the voiceover covering the terms and conditions of the offer at the end of the ad was too quick and at a low volume that made it unintelligible.
The complainant challenged whether the radio advert of the gambling operator was misleading.
Paddy Power Responds to Complaint about Radio Ad’s Voiceover
PPB Counterparty Services Ltd, trading as Paddy Power, responded to the accusations, saying that the controversial radio ad featured the operator’s Bet Builder promotion allowing customers to make a free bet of up to £10 in case one leg of an accumulator bet was not successful. The company said that all significant conditions relevant to the offer had been included in the ad.
Paddy Power also claimed it made sure that the conditions of the offer did not come in conflict with any of the claims made by the advert.
The sports betting operator said that it had reviewed the ad after receiving the viewer’s complaint, and no issues with the voiceover’s volume of the ad had been found. Furthermore, the company insisted on its belief that the advert met the standard specifications that apply to UK radio broadcasters. Paddy Power also explained that the promotion’s terms and conditions were read in a voice that differed from the one used in the rest of the ad, so any dip in volume came as a result of the change of speaker and the difference in the speakers’ tones.
The industry body for commercial radio in the UK, Radiocentre, also addressed the complaint, saying that it had cleared the ad on the condition that any legally required information or important clarifications would be presented to listeners in a way that allows them to easily hear and understand them.
ASA Finds the Gambling Operator’s Ad in Breach of BCAP Code Rules
The UK’s advertising regulator investigated the case, noting that the special offer only applied to pre-match online bets that were made up of four legs. Also, all legs had to feature minimum odds of 1 to 5, with the offer excluding enhanced match odds. Furthermore, the maximum free bet that customers could obtain from the special offer, amounted to £10 daily.
The Advertising Standards Authority considered that information regarding the offer was material information that customers needed in order to be able to make an informed decision, especially considering the fact that the special offer applied to selected online bets only. Therefore, the advertising watchdog found that such information must be presented to potential customers in a clear and intelligible way.
The ASA found that the voiceover of the special condition applicable to the offer was actually made at a lower volume than the one covering the previous part of the advert, and at a much faster pace. According to the regulator, delivering the wording of the ad in such a manner would make it impossible for listeners to take in the full content of the information.
Considering the fact that the conditions of the gambling operator’s special offer had not been delivered in a clear and intelligible manner, the ASA concluded that the ad was misleading. The regulator found that Paddy Power’s radio ad violated BCAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.2 regarding misleading advertising and 3.10 and 3.11 regarding qualification, so it must not appear in the same form anymore.
- Author
Olivia Cole
