ASA Dismiss Complaint over Betfair’s Prize Pinball Radio Advert
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), the United Kingdom’s ad regulator, has released a statement where it cleared Betfair, the tier 1 gaming operator, of breaching its regulatory code when it aired an advertisement on the radio earlier this year.
ASA judged that Betfair’s Prize Pinball Radio Advert followed its code.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The ASA received a complaint when the Prize Pinball gambling promotion from Betfair was broadcast on Radio X at 8am in September this year. the complainant argued the promotion could have been heard by children at this time of day and encourage them to gamble.
In response to the complaint Betfair, under the name of PPB Entertainment, said the advertisement was targeted at the age group of over 25s, and said Radiocentre, the organization that deals with commercial radio regulations, had indicated the ad was acceptable.
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ASA Assesses The Betfair Ad in its Judgement
The ASA stated that the ad was broadcast at 8 am in the morning and there was a chance that children could be listening. However the ad was aired on an app and users must be over 18 to access the content and Betfair had specifically targeted listeners over 25.
The complainant said children with the user of the app could still be listening to the promotion. The ASA said this may be true but looked into a detailed breakdown of the segmentation of the Radio audience that broadcast the advert. It revealed that 88% of its listeners were probably 25, and only 6% of the audience were likely to be children. This meant they believed the gaming operator did not deliberately target children with this promotion.
In summary, the ASA found there was no issue with the content of the advert and the time of day that it was broadcast.
At the start of the month, Betfair made a payment to the Brazilian authorities to secure a gaming license to operate in the country.
Betfair said the ad was cleared by Radiocentre prior to broadcast and the ad was scheduled in accordance with their guidance that the ad should not run on stations aimed towards under-18s. They considered the demographic of the radio channel when scheduling the ad; they highlighted that Radio X featured current and classic rock, indie and alternative music for 25 to 44-year-olds, and that 88 percent of the audience were aged over 25 according to third-party market research data.
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