The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered William Hill to withdraw an advert after ruling it misled customers over an online promotion.
The ad appeared in the William Hill app on 17 May, promoting an offer for the game ‘Marble Race Live’.
It stated, “Enjoy £40 on us, when you opt in and stake £20”, with smaller text underneath requiring a minimum £40 stake.
A single complainant challenged whether the advert was misleading. The primary issue was that the minimum stake to secure the £40 in free bets was £40, rather than the £20 stated in the first part of the ad.
Responding to the complaint, William Hill admitted the advert had displayed incorrect wording on how much players needed to spend. This was due to a manual error made when resizing the ad for layout purposes. It said the correct £40 requirement was clearly stated in the smaller text.
“Although the campaign was based on the correct template, the staking requirement was mistakenly changed from £40 to £20 because of a typographical error,” the operator said.
William Hill also said only one advert in the promotion was impacted, with this shown to a target group of up to 3,057 customers via its app. As the ad was live for a few days, it said this reduced the likelihood of “widespread exposure”.
The operator said that customers who clicked the ad saw the full and accurate terms and conditions before opting in. It added that it has reviewed its processes to ensure this type of error does not occur again.
ASA sides with complainant over advert
However, the ASA ultimately agreed with the complainant. It said headline text was likely to mislead users as it did not reflect the terms and conditions.
The ASA acknowledged the small print referred to the correct staking value necessary to participate in the promotion. However, by introducing a higher staking requirement as a qualifying condition, this contradicted rather than clarified the headline claim.
“Because the ad suggested that a stake over £20 was eligible for the offer, when that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading,” the ASA said.
William Hill was found in breach of CAP Code rule 3.1 on misleading advertising, as well as rule 3.9 for qualification. The ASA ordered the operator to not run the advert again in its current form.
ASA clamps down on gambling ads
William Hill is the latest gambling operator to feel the wrath of the ASA for breaching rules on advertising.
Earlier in October, the ASA warned Betway and Kwiff over ads likely to have been of appeal to under-18s. Betway was criticised for featuring the logo of Premier League football club Chelsea throughout its advert. Meanwhile, Kwiff included British Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton in its advert.
Elsewhere, the ASA rejected an appeal from SkyBet about a historical advert featuring ex-footballer and now-pundit Gary Neville. It upheld a ruling from October 2023 that the ad may have appealed to youngsters under the age of 18.
Text in the William Hill ad contradicted how much players needed to spend to access the promotion.