Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on gambling ads, identified for investigation following complaints received and intelligence gathered by the ASA. See also related rulings published on 27 May.
Ad description
A paid-for online display ad for BoyleSports, seen on the Racing Post website www.racingpost.com, on 3 March 2026, featured the text “BANK BUILDER JACKPOT” and in large text “+ UP TO £60 IN FREE BETS SHARE OF £10K EVERY WEEK”.
Small print stated, “18+ UK/IRE online. 9 Feb-8 Mar. Place & settle £/€10+ bets, min odds 1/1 on selected sports. Bet 4 days weekly to earn £/€5 Cheltenham Free Bet (FB). 5 days = £/€5 Cheltenham FB + £/€5 FB next week (NW). 6 days = £/€5 Cheltenham FB + £/€10 FB NW. 7 days = £/€5 Cheltenham FB + win a share of the £/€10k weekly jackpot (paid as cash NW). Cheltenham FBs credited 10-13 Mar, expire 13 Mar at 23:59. […] 18+ GambleAware Bet Responsibly”.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether the ad encouraged behaviour that was socially irresponsible or could lead to financial harm.
Response
BoyleSports (Gibraltar) Ltd t/a BoyleSports said that the promotion operated on a weekly basis from 9 February to 8 March 2026. Customers qualified by meeting the relevant £10 daily qualifying criteria on four, five, six or seven days within a promotional week, which ran from Monday to Sunday. Depending on the relevant daily qualifying sport, the £10 requirement could be met either through one qualifying bet of, or multiple qualifying bets totalling, at least £10.Customers who met the qualifying criteria on four days in a promotional week earned a £5 Cheltenham free bet; on five days a £5 Cheltenham free bet plus a £5 free bet the following week; on six days a £5 Cheltenham free bet plus a £10 free bet the following week; and on seven days a £5 Cheltenham free bet plus a share of a £10,000 weekly promotional pool.
The promotional pool was shared equally among all customers who met the seven-day qualifying criteria for that week. Their share was credited as withdrawable cash the following Monday. Cheltenham free bets were credited during the Cheltenham Festival from 10 to 13 March 2026 and were valid until 23:59 on 13 March 2026.
BoyleSports said that the qualifying days did not need to be consecutive apart from for the seven-day promotional pool. In that case, customers would need to meet the criteria on all seven days in the promotional week. Customers could, however, qualify for a reward by meeting the qualifying criteria on any four days within a single promotional week and those days did not need to be consecutive. They also stated that customers did not need to progress to the seven-day tier; could choose to qualify for a reward in only one promotional week; and were not required to participate during all four weeks.
BoyleSports described the promotion as aimed at customers with varying levels of normal betting activity. It did not require them to increase their individual stake size or commit to participate across the full period of the promotion. Rewards were automatically applied where qualifying activity occurred. Customers were not required to opt in, enrol in a challenge, or commit to completing any number of betting days. The automatic application did not restrict customer funds, create wagering requirements, lock balances, or impose restrictions on customers who had not actively chosen to participate.
BoyleSports believed the weekly structure of the offer; the availability of lower-tier rewards; and the absence of any requirement to bet on consecutive days or across all four weeks meant the ad did not encourage behaviour that was socially irresponsible or could lead to financial harm. The qualifying stake was fixed: customers were unable to increase guaranteed benefit by increasing the value of their bet. Customers did not need to stake or deposit further funds to use the free bets awarded.
BoyleSports described the ad as factual and terms led. It explained the dates of the promotion, qualifying stake, minimum odds, reward tiers, crediting dates and expiry dates. Dates, expiry details and qualifying criteria were for transparency around conditions, not to pressure customers into participating. They said the ad did not use urgency or high-pressure language, nor countdown-style messaging.
They also said that it avoided imagery suggesting guaranteed success, celebration, pressure or winning. It did not trivialise gambling, suggest gambling was risk-free, imply that gambling was a route to financial security, or present the promotional reward as guaranteed profit.
BoyleSports acknowledged that the maximum theoretical route through the promotion would have involved meeting the qualifying criteria on every day of each promotional week, but said that this was not a requirement or the primary intent of the promotion. It was not structured as a 28-day or all-or-nothing challenge. Lower-tier rewards enabled customers to receive a benefit without daily betting.
BoyleSports stated that customer-behaviour data showed that the maximum route was not the typical customer journey. In each promotional week, approximately 2.5% of qualifying customers reached the seven-day tier, with the weekly range sitting between 2.3% and 2.8%, and the majority of customers qualified without betting every day of the week. Approximately 0.5% of the customers with at least one qualifying bet, qualified on each of the 28 days. BoyleSports believed that showed that this was not how customers generally engaged with the promotion.
They also said their data showed that cash-customers placed, on average, between 28 and 32 bets per week, and were active on approximately 3.5 to 4 betting days per week. Their data also showed that customers who qualified for the promotion were relatively active on the relevant sports before it, betting across an average of 5.6 days per week in the pre-promotion period. During the promotion period, that only increased to six days per week. BoyleSports believed that showed there had not been a material shift into daily betting behaviour.The promotional period also coincided with an active sporting calendar, including the Champions League knockout stages and the T20 Cricket World Cup, which could have contributed to wider betting activity during that period.
They said that the qualifying stake was consistent with prior ordinary behaviour on the relevant sports: the average stake for racing and football was £15.97, which was higher than the £10 qualifying criterion. BoyleSports believed this demonstrated that the threshold was not set at a level requiring customers to increase their ordinary stake size to participate.
Racing Post said they had received no complaints about the ad.
Assessment
Upheld
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications for gambling must not portray, condone or encourage gambling behaviour that was socially irresponsible or could lead to financial harm. CAP Guidance stated that marketers should not encourage frequent or repetitive participation.
The ad indicated that customers would need to place and settle eligible bets of at least £10 each day for a minimum of four days during a promotional week to qualify for a free bet. Customers needed to place and settle bets for five, six or seven days in a promotional week for increased rewards.
The ASA acknowledged that only those customers opting to achieve the maximum benefit would be required to bet on every consecutive day in a promotional week. However, we noted that betting on five or six days in a week would require some gambling on consecutive days, and that even customers opting for the lowest level of benefit, at four days, were encouraged by the ad to place eligible bets on more days of a promotional week than not.
For the “£60 IN FREE BETS” customers needed to place qualifying bets of at least £10 per day, six days a week, for four weeks. For a “SHARE OF £10K EVERY WEEK” customers needed to bet at least £10 per day for seven consecutive days, every week for four weeks. While they were not required to bet every day, and the promotion was not structured as a 28-day or all-or-nothing challenge, we considered that the ad nevertheless encouraged customers to place bets daily with text such as “SHARE OF £10K EVERY WEEK”. Although we acknowledged that a larger stake did not increase the reward, we noted that full participation for a share of the £10K every week, required bets every day for 28 days and cost at least £280.
While we understood that BoyleSports held data that showed that the average stake for racing and football was higher than the £10 qualifying bet, and that they had interpreted that to mean that customers were not required to increase their ordinary stake to participate, we did not consider this was sufficient evidence that the ad avoided encouraging frequent or repetitive participation. Notwithstanding the data that BoyleSports submitted regarding typical customer behaviour, it was, for example, possible for customers to place a single bet of double the £10 qualifying stake per week which, at £20, would contribute to the average stake being higher than £10. However, to participate in the promotion they would need to have staked a minimum of £40 in a promotional week by placing eligible bets of £10 on at least four different days.
We accepted that customers would not need to stake or deposit further funds to use the free bets. However, having bet on numerous days, even if only during one of the promotional weeks, customers in receipt of free next-week bets would need to use them the following week. They would therefore be encouraged to engage in gambling the week immediately following one when they had placed bets on five or six days. We considered that this requirement encouraged frequent or repetitive participation.
We considered that this also applied in respect of the Cheltenham free bets. They were credited between 10 and 13 March 2026, from two days after the promotion had ended, and needed to be used by 13 March 2026, within five days of the promotion ending. We considered that, despite the Cheltenham bets being free, they nevertheless prompted customers to engage in gambling again not long after the promotion had closed, and therefore encouraged frequent and repetitive participation.
We understood that BoyleSports held customer data that showed the maximum route of betting every day in a promotional week was not typical of customers who qualified for the promotion; neither was a pattern of betting every day of every week for all four weeks. We understood that BoyleSports also held data that they had interpreted as showing that the number of days in a week that qualifying customers bet on average had not increased significantly, compared to a period before the promotion. Notwithstanding that, we considered that the mechanics of the promotion which encouraged frequent and repetitive gambling on four to seven days out of every week, over a four-week period, including the requirement to use the free bets in the subsequent weeks to which they were accumulated, could lead to financial harm.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ad encouraged behaviour that was socially irresponsible or could lead to financial harm.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 16.3 and 16.3.1 (Gambling).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form investigated. We told BoyleSports (Gibraltar) Ltd t/a BoyleSports to ensure that their future ads did not encourage gambling behaviour that was socially irresponsible or could lead to financial harm. For example, their ads should not encourage frequent and repetitive participation.
