ASA Bans the Adverts of BetIndex and Coral

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the adverts from BetIndex and Coral for being socially irresponsible and encouraging potentially harmful behaviour.

A BetIndex video on YouTube featured a representative of The Football Index product describing it as “basically the football stock market, where you buy and sell shares in footballers with real money and you can win daily pay-outs which we call dividends.” A viewer of the video complained that it was irresponsible because it was presented as an investment opportunity.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ad created the impression that the product was an investment opportunity when, in fact, it was a betting product. It concluded that the ad did not make the associated financial risks clear and was irresponsible.

Separately, a television ad for Coral has been banned for encouraging repetitive participation in gambling. The ad featured a female voiceover stating: “Free £5 bet every Sunday. When you bet £25+ Monday to Saturday.” A viewer complained that the offer was irresponsible and potentially harmful for encouraging consumers to gamble each week.

“We considered that the suggestion that viewers should ‘join’ a ‘club’ in order to receive a free £5 bet ‘every’ Sunday was likely to encourage some consumers to take up the offer repetitively. For that reason, we concluded that the ad was likely to encourage gambling behaviour that was harmful and therefore breached the Code,” upholding the complaint, the ASA said.