Ad description
Claims on the betting website www.betfred.com were headlined "£500 Welcome Bonus" and stated "Join the Betfred Online Casino today and you can benefit from a bankroll boosting £500 Welcome Bonus package to enjoy over 200 games! Claim your free cash in three easy steps: 1. Download the casino software and register for free. 2. Register a payment method. 3. Deposit and instantly claim your £500 welcome bonus.* *Terms & Conditions Apply - see below". Boxed text stated "1st Deposit Bonus. 100% up to £200. Example: Deposit £200 and receive £200 free so that you can start your play with a total of £400! 2nd Deposit Bonus. 50% up to £100. Example: Deposit £200 and receive £100 free so that you can start your play with a total of £300! 3rd Deposit Bonus. 50% up to £200. Example: Deposit £400 and receive £200 free so that you can start your play with a total of £600!".
In a separate web page, the terms and conditions were listed for each of the three deposit scenarios. Text stated "Kindly note, that players have to place bets at the casino equal to 20 times the deposit plus bonus amount, before cashing out any winnings ... Certain games including Blackjack and Roulette will have a lower % of bets placed count towards the total wagering requirements of the first deposit bonus, as indicated via the table below". The table was headed "Example with a Single Bet" and stated that Roulette had a "Stake contribution" of "10%", meaning "A bet of £100.00 currency units will count towards wagering as a bet of: 10".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the offer was misleading, because he did not think it was clear that, if playing roulette, players would have to play through their initial stake 400 times before they could collect any winnings.
Response
Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd (t/a Betfred) said the bonus offer in question had now expired.
They stated that any player that had accepted the bonus was referred to the terms and conditions page via a web link, which appeared on the promotional page, as well as via a message which was presented to players when the bonus was offered from within each of the casino games. They provided an example of that message, which stated "You can now receive your £10.00 welcome double up bonus. Just click 'Accept'/'Agree' below. Wagering is twenty times the Deposit+Bonus and General Bonus Terms apply". The text "General Bonus Terms apply" contained a web link to the terms and conditions.
They said the terms and conditions clearly stipulated that the bonus carried a wagering requirement which must be met and that that requirement had a multiplier factor connected to the game type, which influenced how much wagering was required. They stated that was clearly set out in the table included in the terms, where the actual percentage amount was displayed for each game type. They gave the example that roulette had a coefficient of 10% and the table gave a 'real world' example of a £100 bet contributing £10 towards the wagering requirement. They added that the table was also present in the General Bonus Rules section on the website.
They felt they had used widely understood features in bonuses, namely the coefficients and weightings by game type in wagering requirements, which they said were commonly used in the online casino industry. They said over 10,000 players accepted the welcome bonus and the associated terms and conditions in 2012 and provided the amount that had been withdrawn as cash winnings, which they felt suggested that the majority of players had understood the terms associated with the bonus. They added that players also had access to 24/7 customer support via live chat, e-mail and phone to discuss any terms and conditions and that they regularly worked with players to help them complete the requirements.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA noted that the offer page set out how to claim the bonus and considered that it made clear that "Terms & Conditions Apply*" and provided a clear link to the terms. We noted that the terms themselves provided additional information regarding the bonus offer, which included the information that "players have to place bets at the casino equal to 20 times the deposit plus bonus amount, before cashing out any winnings". We considered that made clear that the cashing out threshold was based on the full deposit added to the bonus amount and multiplied by 20, rather than meaning that players could cash out after having played 20 games of any type and from any category. We therefore considered that players would understand that they had to play a higher amount than the total of their initial deposit and the bonus amount given, before they could make any cash withdrawals.
We also noted that the terms stated that "Certain games including Blackjack and Roulette will have a lower % of bets placed count towards the total wagering requirements of the first deposit bonus, as indicated via the table below" and included a table which provided particular examples of a single bet for the listed casino games and game categories. We noted that four games categories listed (arcade games, scratch cards, slots and keno) had a stake contribution of 100%. We understood that roulette, the game example raised by the complaint, had a stake contribution of 10% and the table explained that, in that case, a bet of £100 would count towards wagering as a bet of £10.
We acknowledged that, in the case of playing roulette only, in light of the 10% wagering requirement, players would have to play through their initial stake 400 times before they could collect any winnings, and noted that that particular example was not expressly set out in the terms. We also acknowledged that the terms did not expressly detail the number of times a stake might have to be played in each of the other game categories that also had a smaller percentage stake contribution.
However, because the terms and conditions set out both the cash withdrawal threshold and wagering requirements, we considered that players would therefore be aware of and understand those requirements, and could further determine from that information, how that would impact on reaching the cash withdrawal threshold and the number of times they would have to play through their initial stake for each of the game categories or for a combination of them. We therefore concluded that the ad's claims were unlikely to mislead.
We investigated under 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),
3.10
3.10
Qualifications must be presented clearly.
CAP has published a Help Note on Claims that Require Qualification.
(Qualifications),
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), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
