ASA Adjudication on Premier Racing

Ad

A direct mailing for a betting tipster service stated "OUR FANTASTIC NEW DISCOVERY COULD MAKE YOU £100,000 TAX-FREE A YEAR YOU MUST NOT MISS OUT Do you want to be rich? … you have the very real chance of making thousands of pounds of tax-free cash every month, with very little effort …This NEW strategy is far and away the best we have ever created, and it could hold the key to your future financial success … we are supremely confident it cannot fail to succeed … absolutely nobody else has access to this information … a foolproof betting strategy …". The mailing also contained a list of horses that Premier Racing had recommended along with a running profit total.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the:

1. earnings claims were misleading and could be substantiated;

2. list of bets was genuine.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. Premier Racing pointed out that the mailings covering letter stated "We have recently produced a brand new strategy, which on paper at least, has performed brilliantly. Our enclosed brochure gives comprehensive details, and a complete list of qualifying bets the strategy produced last winter. It also gives a theoretical profit guide ..." They said the mailing therefore made clear the listed bets were not 'advised' or 'tipped' and that the profit referred to was 'theoretical'. They believed the mailing did not make earning claims as such.

2. Premier Racing said the list of bets in the mailing comprised of selections that qualified, under a betting strategy they had developed, over the period of time in question. They said their clients understood that their selections were based totally on a systematic/strategic approach. They said the strategy had clearly defined rules, which were based on detailed computerised research. Premier Racing said they also offered bets that were advised and that they had attempted to proof those bets appropriately. They acknowledged, however, that they had had difficulties in arranging proofing with a third party and that they were unable to provide proofing data.

Assessment

1. & 2. Upheld

The ASA understood that Premier Racing offered a text message based tipping service that provided clients with bets derived from their system for determining selections. We noted Premier Racing maintained that recipients would understand that the profits referred to were 'theoretical'. However, we noted the mailing featured several profit related claims, for instance "an income of over £100,000 a year", and the listed bets featured a running total of winnings. We considered that recipients would expect that Premier Racing could demonstrate that those profits and related levels of performance were achievable. We noted Premier Racing did not believe that bets on their text messaging service were 'advised' in the conventional sense as they were determined by a set of rules. However, we considered that, irrespective of how the selections were arrived at, the bets were communicated to clients prior to the starting time of the relevant event and should therefore have been lodged with an independent third party to prove that the selections had been made. Because Premier Racing had not adequately proofed their selections, we concluded that they had not substantiated the claims.

The mailing breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The mailing must not appear again in its current form.

We told Premier Racing to ensure that they lodged their selections with an independent third party and to ensure that, on request, they could provide the ASA with proofing data to support any profit or performance related claims used in their ads.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)