Ad description
A pre-roll ad on YouTube for Betway, seen on 17 May 2025, featured football fans wearing clothing and scarves with the Chelsea FC logo.Issue
The complainant challenged whether, by featuring the Chelsea FC logo, the ad was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s, and therefore breached the Code.Response
Betway Ltd (Betway) referred to the Joint CAP and BCAP Advertising Guidance “Gambling and lotteries advertising: protecting under-18s” (the B/CAP Guidance), which recognised football as an activity of inherently strong appeal to under-18s. The Guidance allowed gambling ads to include content that “specifically identifies a subject of the gambling activity”, such as a sports team logo. The exemption was designed to balance protecting under-18s with advertisers’ rights to promote licensed products. Betway believed their rewards scheme formed an integral part of the gambling activity. Betway argued that the use of the Chelsea FC logo, which appeared on scarves and clothing, was therefore in line with the exemption, which permitted identifiers that served a similar function to an audio or visual reference. The ad showcased elements of a stadium tour to reflect the nature of a prize on offer, as part of a wider campaign to inform viewers of the rewards available through Betway.
Betway added that a brand lift survey showed that the ad campaign resulted in an 8% increase in brand awareness, all of which was from YouTube users age 55+. They said that demonstrated the effectiveness of the ad and its targeting of an older audience.
Betway said in order to reduce the connection with football, the ad did not include any active football play, wide shots of the stadium, or extended views of the pitch, which appeared only briefly and out of focus. They said the individuals featured were competition winners rather than actors and their clothing choices were incidental. They added that the participants’ appearance, clothing, and demeanour were clearly adult.
Betway said they had the contractual right to use the club’s logo in their role as Chelsea FC’s Official European Betting Partner. They believed if the ad were found to be in breach of the Code it could set a damaging precedent for gambling sponsorships in sport. Betway described the responsible marketing controls it had in place across its sponsorship arrangements, which included a Code of Conduct. That Code explicitly prohibited the use of players or managers in ads and clarified that logos were allowed.
The ad was targeted at logged-in YouTube users aged 25+ with relevant interests, in keeping with the requirements of the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling (IGRG) Code for Socially Responsible Advertising. Betway commented that YouTube’s own ad policies offered further safeguards against under-18s being exposed to age-restricted content.
Google (YouTube) said under the terms agreed to by advertisers, it was the advertiser’s responsibility to abide by applicable law and regulations, including the CAP Code.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications for gambling must not be likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture. The B/CAP Guidance stated “some ‘activities’ that relate directly to the gambling product advertised are considered to have inherent strong appeal to under-18s and therefore fall under the prohibition, unless appropriate steps have been taken to limit the potential for the ad to appeal strongly to under-18s”. Football was an activity of inherent strong appeal to under-18s, but marketers were permitted to include content which specifically identified a subject of the gambling activity, for example, the logo of a sports team, sports tournament or other event. That allowed for content that served the same function as a written or spoken reference.
We considered that it would have been acceptable for the logo to appear in a standalone context, for example at the end of the ad, where it would act as a visual reference to a subject of the gambling activity. However, the logo was shown on fans’ scarves, lanyards and hats. It also featured on team shirts in wall displays and on backdrops within the stadium building. We considered that the depiction of the team logo in an ad that showed a stadium experience for fans was likely to strongly appeal to children and young people who supported Chelsea FC or followed football more widely. We further considered that its appearance in that context went beyond any permitted exemption for identifying content and therefore was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.
We further considered that it would have been acceptable for the ad to appear in a medium where under-18s, for all intents and purposes, could be entirely excluded from the audience. That would apply in circumstances where those who saw the ad had been robustly age-verified as being 18 or older, such as through marketing lists that had been validated by payment data or credit checking. However, because YouTube was a media environment where users self-verified on customer sign-up and did not use robust age-verification, we considered that Betway had not excluded under-18s from the audience with the highest level of accuracy required for gambling ads where their content was likely to appeal strongly to under-18s.
Ofcom research based on a 2025 survey (sample of 1,793 social media users aged 8–17 years) indicated that 81% of 8–17-year olds who had social media used YouTube. The research also estimated that 20% of 8–17-year olds with their own profile on an online service had a registered user age of at least 18.
Given that evidence, we considered it was likely that there was at least a significant number of children who had not used their real date of birth when signing up to YouTube and were able to see and access content intended for those aged 18 or older, meaning they could view advertising content from gambling operators.
We concluded that the ad was irresponsible and breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.1, 16.3 and 16.3.12 (Gambling).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Betway to ensure that future ads did not contain content of strong appeal to those under 18 years of age.
