Ad description
An e-mail promotion and a website page for an online betting website, www.betfred.com:
a. Text in the e-mail promotion stated "Welcome to Betfred ... Your £10 Free Mobile Sports Bet is being processed ... In the meantime how do you fancy another Free Bet? Deposit and place your first real money bet, and we'll match it all the way up to £25 [link]".
b. A web page titled '£25 Matched Bet' on the Betfred website linked to the e-mail promotion above. Text on this page stated "Simply sign up with Betfred.com and make your first Bet of £1 or more and we'll match it all the way up to £25 with a free bet! Your £25 Matched Bet is available across all Sports, Lotto and Virtual Markets at Betfred.com. We will endeavour to have it in your account within 24 hours, although this may take up to 48". Clicking on the link 'Terms and Conditions' underneath the text revealed a list of terms that included "4. To qualify for the Matched Bet , the cumulative odds of the selections on your first bet must be Evens (2.0) or greater and be real money stake ."
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ads were misleading because they did not make clear that to qualify for the free matched bet, the odds on the first bet placed needed to be "Evens (2.0) or greater".
Response
Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd t/a Betfred.com stated that they accepted that the ads might have misled the complainant by not effectively communicating in the ads the required odds on the first bet placed. They said that they would state all, if any, limitations of their promotions explicitly in all communication and that consumers would be made aware of how to participate in the promotion including any limitations that were likely to influence their decisions.
Betfred.com stated that, as a result of the complaint, they had made changes to their advertising to make relevant terms and conditions clear.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA welcomed the amendments that Betfred.com had proposed in respect of the way in which they communicated the conditions of the offers concerned.
We noted that, although ad (a) stated that the first bet must be placed with money, neither ads specified the requirement of "EVENS (2.0) or greater" odds on the first bet placed. We considered that such requirement was a significant condition likely to influence consumers' decision to take advantage of the offer.
In the absence of a qualification in the ads specifying the required odds, we considered consumers were likely to interpret the ads to mean that the matched bet offer was not subject to significant limitations. Although the full terms and conditions to the £25 matched bet offer were set out in ad (b), we considered that it was insufficient for this material information to be included only in the terms and conditions rather than the body of the ads themselves.
On the basis that ads did not make a significant condition of the offer clear, we concluded that they were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading Advertising),
3.9
3.9
Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.
3.10
3.10
Qualifications must be presented clearly.
CAP has published a Help Note on Claims that Require Qualification.
(Qualification),
8.17
8.17
All marketing communications or other material referring to promotions must communicate all applicable significant conditions or information where the omission of such conditions or information is likely to mislead. Significant conditions or information may, depending on the circumstances, include:
and
8.18
8.18
Marketing communications that include a promotion and are significantly limited by time or space must include as much information about significant conditions as practicable and must direct consumers clearly to an easily accessible alternative source where all the significant conditions of the promotion are prominently stated. Participants should be able to retain those conditions or easily access them throughout the promotion.
(Significant Conditions for Promotions).
Action
The ads must not appear in their current form again. We told Betfred.com to ensure that significant conditions of their £25 matched bet offer, such as the required odds on the first bet placed, were specified in the main text of future ads.
