Ad description
An email for an online betting company, TitanBet, dated 15 May featured the headline claim "£30 Free Bet + 100% Risk Free As CASH!". Further text stated “Risk Free up to £100 to be paid in CASH!”. Text stated "Place a bet on any sport, event or market of your choice at odds of 1/2 (1.50) or higher and no matter the result, you'll be a winner. If your bet wins - fantastic! If it doesn't, you will get your money back in CASH up to £100!". The terms and conditions at the bottom of the ad included the conditions “Your refund up to £100 will be available immediately after your bet is settled as a lose, and can be used on any sport, event or market” and "Your risk free bet is valid for 4 days".
Issue
The complainant, who did not believe the ad made clear that the bet had to be settled within four days for customers to be entitled to receive the advertised refund, challenged whether the ad was misleading on that basis.
Response
PT Entertainment Services Ltd t/a TitanBet said that the claim "Your risk free bet is valid for 4 days" was not as clear as it should have been. They said they would take all necessary steps in future to ensure that any restrictions on a promotion were made clear to consumers and were expressed clearly.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered consumers would interpret the condition “your risk free bet is valid for the next 4 days” to mean that they would be eligible for the offer if they placed the bet within the next four days. However, we understood that the bet had to be settled within four days, meaning that customers who placed a bet within four days, but on a match or event that did not finish within those four days, would not be entitled to the offer as the bet would not have been settled in time. We considered that was significant information that needed to be presented prominently in the ad. Therefore, because that information had been omitted and given how the ad suggested that consumers only needed to place their bets within four days to be eligible for the offer, we concluded that the promotion was misleading.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
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 from. We told TitanBet to ensure that their future promotions included relevant applicable significant conditions where their omission was likely to mislead and that they be communicated clearly.
