William Hill have recent advertisements banned by the Advertising Standards Authority
19th October, 2009
William Hill is a very popular bookmaker with the punters, but it seems as though the Advertising Standards Authority think differently and believe that they are abusing the loyalty of their customers by trying to bribe in new players with misleading advertising.
The ASA have banned their latest 2 press adverts and a poster campaign which offered players that signed up online or opened a telephone account £100 of free bets. Whilst this is very tempting, the advertisements do not clearly state that any wins from stakes made out of the £100, are deducted and you do not get back what you bet. It appears that although you have to place real bets to gain the free bets, the terms and conditions for how the difference in bets are used is not seen as fair for the punters.
William Hill denied any attempts of false advertising and explained that it was clear from the adverts that you do not win back what you bet. In addition they claimed that they promised £100 free and, it is. William Hill went on to say that either way the punter is not spending any of their money and are still in with a chance of winning real money.
The denial from William Hill has not seemed to of affected the ASA’s decision as they feel that the advertisement implies that the punter is promised £100 in free bets when they spend a declared amount on real bets and adverts imply that you will get the fall amount back if you win.
The ASA’s ruling said, “We considered that, because the increments of free bets were only awarded as a result of minimum spends by the consumer; customers would expect those bets to be treated in the same way as any other bet and to get their stake back along with any winnings”.
The ASA did take into consideration the guidelines that William Hill had followed, and on the website in terms and conditions it could be found that stakes were not included, however, the ASA believe that their decision to avoid declaring this in the advertisements may mislead the customer and for this reason, decided to ban the adverts.
By Rommon
