William Hill World Cup ad complaint dismissed by ASA
Advertising regulator backs Hills’ ability to limit availability of bonuses
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dismissed a complaint made against William Hill over one of its World Cup TV adverts.
A complaint was made about the ad, which aired on 8 July, marketing so-called “boosted” betting odds on all World Cup matches.
The advert stated “With two extra bet boosts available on all World Cup matches, all you need to decide is which odds to boost”, which was challenged by the complainant as being misleading as they had stopped receiving the boosts.
William Hill confirmed that the complainant had previously been restricted from receiving promotions or bonuses, stating that he had “abused” the number of bonuses he had received.
The restriction stemmed from the complainant receiving 478 bonuses totalling £1,639.28 over the lifetime of his account with William Hill but had only ever deposited £60 into the account. Hills contacted the complainant on 23 June to advise them that their account would be restricted on this basis.
In addition, the advertisement carried warnings that the availability of the boost would be subject to player/currency/country restrictions and that these boosts would not be available to all customers.
As a result, the ASA said that the advert was not misleading and dismissed the complaint against William Hill.