The ASA (Advertising Standard Authority) are upholding their ruling against UK online bookmaker Betfred following social media posts by the operator which breached the CAP Code, in relation to an Anthony Joshua fight they were promoting.
ASA Upholds Ruling Against Betfred For Anthony Joshua Related Tweets
The ASA (Advertising Standard Authority) has upheld it’s ruling against sports betting app Betfred, over social media posts by the operator.
These tweets were in relation to an Anthony Joshua fight that Betfred were promoting. The three tweets in question posted by the sports betting site came earlier this year in March and April.
The three social media posts in questions were tweets Betfred put out. These include ‘AJ’ being interviewed by commentator Dom McGuinness about his diet, the second about how he prepares for fights and the third was a different interview, where Joshua spoke about his mentality when fighting.
Given that Anthony Joshua is a global figure and an extremely recognisable and popular name in the UK, the ASA questioned the ads and whether they included an individual who was of strong appeal to under 18’s. As the legal gambling age is of course 18, the ASA have deemed these tweets by Betfred as breaching the CAP Code.
Betfred did acknowledge that Joshua indeed has a substantial social media presence, but that their following is an overwhelming majority of adults and that boxing is an adult-orientated sport.
The popular UK bookmaker also made reference to their own social media channels in response, saying they were age-gated to users who were under 18. Furthermore, Betfred claim that their targeted campaigns only served to users who were identified as 25+.
The ASA referenced CAP Guidance, which stated, “a generally high social media following that attracts a significant absolute number of under-18 followers, as determined through quantitative or qualitative analysis, is likely to be considered an indicator of ‘strong’ appeal.”
The ASA also reference that although only a small proportion of Joshua’s followers were under 18 (over 1.1 million), this is still deemed significant and therefore the UK boxing superstar was seen to be of inherent strong appeal to under-18’s.
Betfred aren’t the only UK sports betting site who have come under fire of late. Just two weeks ago, Sky Bet’s social media posts featuring former footballer turned pundit, Gary Neville, also breached the advertising code for appealing to under-18’s.
Such rulings are becoming more and more consistent against social media posts of this nature.
