The British gambling and sports betting brand Ladbrokes has become the first gambling operator that faced sanctions from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the regulator unveiled its new gambling regulations. The advertising watchdog has suspended several tweets of the gambling brand featuring football players from the English Premier League (EPL) after finding that the tweets could be found appealing to underage individuals.
A promoted Ladbrokes tweet, seen in October 2022, contained an embedded video featuring EPL footballers Jesse Lingard, Philippe Coutinho and Kalidou Koulibaly, along with the question of whether their big signings from the summer transfer window bring surety regarding some performance question marks.
The Advertising Standards Authority challenged whether the advert in the tweet included football players who are likely to have a strong appeal to children and therefore breached the country’s Advertising Code.
LC International Ltd, trading as Ladbrokes, responded to the accusations and explained that the advert was designed in-house, so it had been published as a brand engagement piece. The gambling operator further noted that the advert contained no calls to action, promotional offers, or links leading to the official website of Ladbrokes.
The company explained that its marketing team had incorporated the guidance on gambling ads on the CAP code, especially when it comes to adverts that could be found particularly appealing to under -18s. The gambling operator agreed that football stars could carry a high risk of having a strong appeal to children but shared that Ladbrokes’ marketing team used all available age-gating and targeting tools to guarantee that underage individuals would not be targeted by the publication. Apart from that, Ladbrokes explained that Twitter users self-verify their age, so under-18s are not supposed to be able to access the social network’s content unless Twitter had accepted their age as being over 18.
EPL Football Players and Clubs Could Be Particularly Appealing to Children, ASA Says
As Casino Guardian previously reported, as of October 1st, 2022, the new CAP Code rules state that gambling operators in the UK must make sure their marketing communications are not likely to be found appealing by children and young individuals. Therefore, such marketing materials must not feature a person or character who is likely to be associated with youth culture or could be found particularly appealing to individuals aged under 18 years.
The country’s advertising regulatory body noted that football players from the English Premier League were considered at high risk within the “Gambling and lotteries: Protecting under-18s” CAP guidance in terms of how likely they were to be interesting to children. Football has been an activity involving a serious proportion of children as fans and viewers, and there is a general interest in professional football clubs and players across many media hubs. Also, footballers who played at an elite level were more likely to be particularly appealing to children.
All three aforementioned football players were current EPL footballers and the ASA believed they would be well-known to EPL fans, and in particular fans of the clubs they played for, including underage individuals. That is exactly why the watchdog found that the tweet featuring the ad violated CAP Code rules 16.1, 16.3, and 16.3.12 regarding gambling. The Advertising Standards Authority said that the advert must not appear again in its current form and recommended that Ladbrokes should make sure it no longer includes people or characters who could be appealing to individuals under the age of 18.
- Author
Olivia Cole
