Three William Hill ads banned by ASA
Two website ads and one TV ad ruled misleading due to unsubstantiated claims.
William Hill has seen complaints against three of its adverts upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and forbidden from broadcasting them again in their current form.
One complainant argued the three ads were misleading and challenged two on sports.williamhill.com in which the operator claimed the best prices for Royal Ascot and the EURO 2012 football championships, as well as a TV ad boasting the best odds on all UK & Irish horseracing.
For the two website adverts, the ASA ruled that William Hill did not provide qualifying text substantiating their “best prices” offers and they were therefore likely to mislead.
The TV ad fell foul of regulations because the ASA determined that although “best odds guaranteed” is a standard industry term promising customers either the starting price or the price when the bet was placed, whichever is better, most terrestrial TV viewers would misunderstand this as a guarantee to beat rival bookmakers’ odds.
The ASA ruled: “We noted that the ad provided numbers to which viewers could send text messages to begin betting and we considered that they could not therefore have been expected to have read the information about ‘Best Odds Guaranteed’ on the website, particularly as the ad did not direct them to the website.”
BetVictor, Mirror Casino, 888, Gala Coral and Fabulous Bingo have all had ads banned by the ASA this year, however the authority has also decided not to uphold separate claims against adverts from operators including Betfair and 888.