Betfair has their latest advertising campaign banned
12th August, 2009
Latest industry news has revealed that bookmakers Betfair has had one of their latest advertising campaigns banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. Betfair recently launched two billboard adverts that claim returns on bets with Betfair are on average 40% better than competitive starting prices within the gambling industry. The Advertising Standards Authority explained that they believed these adverts to be ‘miss leading’ and that the proposition would be ‘almost impossible to sustain’.
Betfair admitted that the average of 40% was based on the average gained from research they had done and that it was not their intention to guarantee punters that all Betfair customers would benefit from this. The ASA justified there reasons to ban the adverts, explaining that the majority of customers that the billboards would reach would rightly assume that this was a ‘factual statement’ and that customers would expect this benefit in all cases.
In conclusion, the ASA explained that the percentage used in the adverts had been ‘skewed’, judging figures and facts on previous winners rather than all customers betting as a whole, therefore could not be used as a reliable representation.
Betfair is not in the minority of having advertisements banned by the ASA with other competitors within the industry such as Ladbrokes and William Hill also incurring similar problems earlier this year, let just hope they all learn from their mistakes!
By Gina
