Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both of which were Upheld.
Ad description
A national press ad, seen in the Racing Post on 12 October 2017, promoted a betting tipster service. Text stated, "… in the past 6 months or so that amounts to 55 bets, and the success rate for ISIRIS members has been phenomenal, with win bets and/or each-way bets producing a successful return on over 90% of these bets. That is: 50 out of 55 bets which have done what we asked since the start of Aintree back in April … And all our bets are proofed to the Racing Post before racing as evidence these claims are 100% genuine”.
Issue
Lord Lipsey, a member of the Starting Price Regulatory Commission, but acting in a personal capacity, challenged whether:
1. the claim “the success rate for ISIRIS members has been phenomenal, with win bets and/or each way-bets introducing a successful return on over 90% of these bets. That is 50 out of 55 bets” was misleading and could be substantiated; and
2. the claim "all our bets are proofed to the Racing Post before racing as evidence that these claims are 100% genuine" was misleading.
Response
Isiris Racing Services (Isiris) provided a list of bets on a spreadsheet, which they said showed the 55 bets stated in the ad, starting on 6 April 2017. The spreadsheet included details of stake, price, result and profit and loss figures, for bets across various sports. Isiris said the bets on the spreadsheet would match the proofing emails which would be provided by the Racing Post.
The Racing Post provided information relating to the audit of their proofing system.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA considered consumers were likely to understand that 50 out of 55 bets had been successful over a period of approximately six months prior the ad appearing. The spreadsheet they provided included many more bets than 55, and a number of them appeared to include multiple bets within one line. It was therefore not clear which were the 55 referred to in the ad. A significant number appeared to show losses, and no combination of bets from 6 April appeared to show 50 wins out of 55 bets. In addition, we had not received the proofs of the bets.
We therefore concluded that the claim had not been substantiated and was misleading.
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) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
2. Upheld
We considered that consumers were likely to understand from the ad that all of the bets on which Isiris offered tips were proofed in advance to the Racing Post. We expected to see evidence of the bets mentioned in the ad having been proofed following a robust system that had been approved and regularly monitored.
As above, however, we had not seen evidence that the bets had been proofed. We therefore concluded that the claim was misleading.
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) and 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Isiris Racing Services not to claim success rates for their bets, or that their bets were proofed to demonstrate their genuineness, unless they held adequate evidence to substantiate such claims.
