SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered Jeffbet, an online gaming provider, to take down an ad from its website that according to the regulator has misled customers.
A complaint was filed with the regulator about an advert on the Jeffbet website circulating towards the end of last year. According to the text, players were offered “BET £10 AND GET £30 FREE BET” with the additional condition of “New Players Only” being written in small text. There was also a link provided to the full terms and conditions of the offer.
A player, although being a new Jeffbet customer, established that they were not eligible for the promotion, therefore addressing the issue with the ASA.
After being questioned about it, ProgressPlay – Jeffbet’s parent company – responded by saying that the advertisement was meant for new joiners of the ProgressPlay network as a whole.
Being pressed by ASA about why this was not clearly established in the text, ProgressPlay explained that while they make sure that promotional ads include as much detail as possible, “there was not enough space” to highlight the additional detail.
Hence, the company included more information under the “Full Terms Apply” link, detailing the definition of “Progressplay Network” and the brands associated with it.
The complaint was upheld by ASA, with the regulator concluding that the advert was misleading in a way that left the impression of the bonus being available to new Jeffbet customers only and that the ad was in no way constrained by space as it was placed on the Jeffbet website itself.
With the ad being found to be in breach of the CAP Code by providing misleading promotional marketing, ASA issued an order that prohibits ProgressPlay from displaying the advertisement in its current form again.
