Betway free bet offer falls foul of ASA

UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint by a member of the public that a free bet promotion placed on Betway’s website earlier this year was misleading.

The ad, which ran in June, featured the text: “Football Betting Offer £30 Free Bet.”

The complainant did not believe the ad made clear that to obtain a free bet of £30, a customer would have to deposit the same amount.

In responding, Betway agreed that the complaint had merit, although stated that the full terms and conditions for the promotion did make this clear.

Betway has amended the ad to make clear the offer was for a matched bet, and has said it will take steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

In its statement on the matter, the ASA said: “The ASA considered the ad was worth the fixed amount of £30, and did not make clear that it was in fact a matched bet of between £10 and £30, depending on the amount deposited by new customers.

“We considered that this was significant material information which needed to be stated clearly within the ad.

“Because the ad implied the offer was for a fixed free bet amount of £30 and omitted material information, we concluded that it was misleading.”

The ASA concluded that the ad must not appear again in the form complained of, while it has informed Betway that future ads for free bets must make clear whether the free bet amount on offer is matched to the amount deposited by customers.

On Betway, the ASA said: “We welcomed their willingness to make changes to the ad.”