Upheld

The ASA considered that the headline claim "£150 Bonus For all new casino players" and the qualifying text “* Requires a £35 minimum deposit, terms and conditions apply" would be interpreted by readers to mean that, if they joined the William Hill Casino and deposited £35, they would receive £150 with which to bet on games on the site.

We understood however, with reference to the conditions, that the actual terms of the offer were that William Hill would match any deposit from £35 to £150 inclusive and therefore to receive a £150 bonus a customer would have to deposit not £35 but £150. While we noted William Hill’s argument that the conditions were available via the drop down menu from the “Promotions” tab, we considered that they should have been linked to directly from the offer itself and, notwithstanding that, we did not consider that the content of the conditions was capable of countering the misleading impression given by the offer itself.

We also noted that the conditions contained an additional stipulation that, before being able to claim any winnings, players would have to wager 20 times their deposit and bonus amount or more. We considered that that was significant information likely to affect readers’ decision whether or not to take up the advertised offer and should also have been made clear. Because it was not and because the ad implied that customers could obtain a £150 bonus by depositing £35 when that was not the case, we concluded that the offer was misleading.

The offer breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3 (Misleading advertising) and 3.9 (Qualifications).