SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The UK’s Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) has issued a warning over a social media gambling ad featuring a person under 25 years of age.
According to a statement, ASA launched an investigation into amateur female boxer Astrid Wett’s Twitter account after a complaint was made over her promotion of Festival Free Bets – a company collating betting offers.
The complaint was upheld. As per the CAP Code, no one who is or seems to be under 25 years of age can be featured playing a significant role in marketing communications for advertise gambling services, unless in marketing where “ a bet could be placed directly through a transactional facility, for instance, a gambling operator’s own website and the person is the subject of the bet”.
The advert in question was a featured image of the influencer posing at Cheltenham racecourse.
“The image of Astrid Wett was the central focus of the ad and we considered that she therefore played a significant role in it. We understood she was 23 years old at the time the ad was published.
“Because the ad was for a service that was intended to facilitate gambling and featured someone who was aged under 25 playing a significant role, we concluded that it was irresponsible,” ASA commented.
While Festival Free Bets did not provide a comment according to ASA, the watchdog has issued a warning to not show the advert again in the form complained of, and requested that more social responsibility is exercised in the company’s future marketing campaigns.
