UK advertising watchdog bans operators’ promos

Two online gaming operators, the Gibraltar-based Coral Interactive and LeoVegas, have been imposed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as their campaigns have considered to be misleading by the regulator. ASA took action as there were several complaints by people who interpreted the content of their ads as irresponsible and misleading.

Coral Interactive’s ad featured footballers with a voice-over stating, “The beautiful game you can watch it or you can get involved in it with the latest Coral action. So are you a spectator or are you a player? You decide. Coral. Get in on the action.”
Two complainants took issue with the phrasing ‘peer pressure’, suggesting that the only true fans are those who play – either on the pitch or through making bets.

Coral responded that the voice-over was mentioning “whether a viewer was interested in having a bet as well as watching a match.” and that the ad was “a very straight and matter of fact read,” and the “You decide” line was a critical part of the ad and handed control to the spectator.

ASA said: “We concluded the ad was likely to suggest peer pressure to gamble, disparage abstention and unduly suggest that gambling could enhance personal qualities and therefore breached the code”.

Also, the Swedish operator LeoVegas received similar complaints for releasing promotion that were not clearly identifiable after a post by the company via the social networking platform Twitter, in which read “It still hasn’t been fixed! Big wins for Brits after online casino’s ‘glitch’.” The Tweet was linked to the free spins promotion – but it was flagged to the regulator that it didn’t look like an advert and seemed to be suggesting players could win more because of a system glitch.

LeoVegas said that the ad was created by its marketing partner Nyheter and appeared as “Sponsored” or “Promoted”.
“We considered that this would entice consumers into clicking through to see how they may be able to take advantage of the glitch which may increase their chances of winning.” ASA said.