William Hill ad banned by the ASA
UK body rules Hills claims on best price were misleading to consumers
A William Hill print ad has been banned by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for “misleading” claims that Hills offered the best price in football betting.
The banned ad ran in the Racing Post newspaper and showed comparisons between other UK sportsbooks stating William Hill was best price in 102 Premier League games compared to 27 at Coral and 0 at bet365 and Betfair. A complaint to the ASA argued the claim William Hill was the best price on favourites in the Premier League was misleading and couldn’t be substantiated.
William Hill said in a response the data gave an accurate picture and was provided by a third-party source (TXOdds) which drew from a wider comparison between seven bookmakers. William Hill argued it was “unreasonable and impossible” to include all of its competitors in a comparison due to the number of rival operators and so it chose “major operators from within the industry”.
It added the data omitted seven Premier League games, but apologised for the error and said the addition of these games did not change the message of the ad. But the ASA said the ad was misleading as it was neither a direct comparison between the four sites mentioned nor a wider comparison between the industry as it failed to take into account other firms such as Skybet.
“The data did not show that William Hill had offered the best prices on the favourites during the season when compared with the whole market and concluded that the ad was misleading,” the ASA concluded. The ASA ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form and William Hill had to ensure it made “appropriate substantiation before making whole-market comparisons” in future.
It’s the second ad in the past eight days to be banned by the ASA for misleading odd comparisons, following the banning of a Betfair ad last week.