Background

Summary of Council decision:

Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.

Ad description

An email and a pop-up ad for Coral Interactive, a gambling company, promoted free £10 bets on the outcome of Euro 2016 matches:

a. The email, which was received at 13:37 on 15 June 2016, stated "Bet £/€ 10 on the correct score for tomorrow's highlight game, England v Wales, and if your selection loses, you'll get a £/€ 10 free bet.*". The ad featured two prominent hyperlinks with the text "Bet Now >>". Further text at the bottom of the email stated "Terms and Conditions Apply *£/€10 FREE BET ... Offer valid to bets struck from 8pm BST on the day before the nominated game until kick-off".

b. The pop-up ad, seen on Coral Interactive’s website on 15 June, featured the headline claim "J'adore le Score! Bet £10 on correct Score. Get a £10 Free Bet if your selection loses". Further text stated "We'll select one match to get the J'adore le score' treatment where we're giving you a terrific £/€ 10 free bet if your correct score selection loses. Simply place a correct score bet of £/€ 10 + on selected 'J'adore le score' daily match and if your bet doesn't win, we'll give you a £10 free bet token." Towards the bottom of the ad, there was a hyperlink labelled "Bet Now". At the bottom of the page, the ad stated “Terms and Conditions”. Upon clicking this, the terms and conditions appeared, which included “offer valid to bets struck from 8pm BST on the day before the nominated game until kick-off”.

Issue

The ASA received two complaints.

1. One complainant, who noted that customers were only eligible for the free bet if the bet was placed after 8:00 pm, challenged whether ad (a) was misleading by not making this condition sufficiently clear.

2. A second complainant challenged whether ad (b) was misleading for the same reason.

Response

1. & 2. Coral Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd explained that the promotion was advertised in advance of it going live at 8:00 pm. They said the terms and conditions made clear that the offer was only valid after 8:00 pm, but acknowledged that it was an error not to include that information in the main body of the ads. They apologised for the mistake, and said they had begun taking steps to ensure that time-sensitive promotions always carried significant conditions in the main body of ads, and were also introducing a second internal compliance review of all promotions to ensure fairness and compliance with the Code.

Assessment

The ASA welcomed Coral Interactive’s willingness to ensure that future time-sensitive promotions included all significant conditions.

1. Upheld

We noted that the email was received the day before the promoted football match and that the ad featured a prominent “Bet Now” link. We therefore considered that consumers would understand from the claim “Bet £/€ 10 on the correct score … and if your selection loses, you'll get a £/€ 10 free bet”, that if they placed a bet at any time between receipt of the email and the start of the match, and their selection lost, they would receive a free bet.

We noted that the terms and conditions at the bottom of the email, which could only be viewed after scrolling down, stated “Offer valid to bets struck from 8pm BST on the day before the nominated game until kick-off”. However, we considered that that text could be easily overlooked and was not sufficiently prominent to counter the overall impression that any bet placed after receipt of the email would be eligible for the offer. We considered that the time-restriction was a significant condition and therefore should been included within the main body of the ad. Because the ad did not make the condition sufficiently clear, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.   (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) and  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  8.17.1 8.17.1 How to participate
How to participate, including significant conditions and costs, and other major factors reasonably likely to influence consumers' decision or understanding about the promotion
 (Significant conditions for promotions).

2. Upheld

We noted that the pop-up ad appeared on the advertiser’s website the day before one of the promoted football matches and featured a “Bet Now” link. In that context, we considered that consumers would understand from the claim “Get a £10 Free Bet if your selection loses” and “if your bet doesn't win, we'll give you a £10 free bet token”, that if they placed the bet at any time before the start of their selected match, and their selection lost, they would receive a free bet. We noted that by clicking the “terms and conditions” button at the bottom of the ad, consumers could view the conditions of the promotion which included the 8:00 pm time-restriction. However, we considered that the inclusion of the condition “one-click away” was not sufficiently prominent to counter the overall impression of the ad that the offer was already available for customers. As mentioned above, we considered that the time-restriction was a significant condition which should have been included in the main body of the ad. Because the ad did not make the condition sufficiently clear, we concluded that it was likely to mislead.

On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.   (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) and  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  8.17.1 8.17.1 How to participate
How to participate, including significant conditions and costs, and other major factors reasonably likely to influence consumers' decision or understanding about the promotion
 (Significant conditions for promotions).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Coral Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd to ensure that they made clear all significant conditions of their promotions.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

3.1     3.10     3.9     8.17     8.17.1    


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