UK bookmaker William Hill has been told to remove an advertisement for misleading language around payments by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Seen on search engine Bing, the advert in question featured a promotion stating “Bet £10 Get £60 Welcome Bonus’, followed by a link to the sportsbook’s website.
However, the complainant who raised the issue to the ASA stated that when clicking on the link some small print stated that Apple Pay could not be used as a payment method.
The complainant asserted that the restriction of Apple Pay was a significant term of the promotion and that by omitting this information from the initial promotion William Hill was misleading customers.
The ASA’s assessment sided with the complainant, referring to the CAP Code – the Committee on Advertising Practice set of guidelines which governs UK advertising and marketing standards and practice.
Under the CAP Code, all marketing communications and promotions must state applicable significant conditions where omission is likely to mislead. Significant information can include participation and technology restrictions, including payments ones.
In its response to the complaint, William Hill asserted that the criteria in the second advert – the one on its website – were “were clear, prominent and included the qualification ‘Payment methods & country restrictions apply. Full T&Cs apply’.”
The betting operator, owned by the Evoke group (formerly 888 Holdings), added that it understood that Google Pay and Apple Pay have limitations in matching ownership of the payment method with registered gambling accounts.
As a result, there is a higher risk of people using these payment methods to take up an offer intended for new customers only on multiple occasions. The firm stated that it understands “such restrictions were common across the industry”.
However, the ASA concluded that the opening advert (on Bing) not including the information around Apple Pay’s exclusion meant that new customers using this payment method would not receive the £60 welcome bonus. This is significant information likely to affect how a customer interacts with the promotion and product, the ASA states.
The ad must not appear again in the same format and William Hill has been told to ensure future marketing includes all significant conditions in communications.
The ASA often makes judgements relating to betting, a generally high-risk industry. Payments rarely comes up as a topic of discussion, however, with most complaints relating to the industry’s use of sportspeople or marketing which may appeal to younger demographics.
This is not to say that payments and finance never falls under the ASA’s scope, however. Earlier this year the authority criticised Nationwide Building Society for mentioning rival banks’ branch closures in an widely circulated TV advert.