Background
This Ruling replaces that published on 13 March 2019. The decision has been reversed, making the complaint 'not upheld'.
Ad description
A TV ad for Sky Bet, seen on 30 August 2018, promoting their “Request a Bet” service.
The football presenter Jeff Stelling said, “Forget ‘anything can happen’, in sport anything does happen. But could it be better? With Request a Bet it could. Spark your sports brain and roll all the possibilities into one bet. Three red cards, seven corners, five goals: let’s price that up. Or browse hundreds of request a bets on our app. The possibilities are humongous. How big is your sports noggin? Sky Bet, Britain’s most popular online bookmaker. When the fun stops, stop.” A large screen behind the presenter featured various odds and statistics as well as a graphic of brain waves emanating from his head.
Issue
Two complainants, who believed it implied that those with a good knowledge of sports were likely to experience gambling success, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible.
Response
Sky Bet said that the ad made two references to knowledge, the first being “Spark your sports brain” and secondly “how big is your sports noggin?”, which in the context of the ad referred to consumers using their knowledge to build a bet using the Sky Bet Request a Bet feature. They said that there were a number of parameters that customers could choose to build their bet and they would use knowledge of the relevant sport in order to do that. The ad made no reference to knowledge increasing someone’s chances of winning and referred to the possibilities of customers building their own bet. The ad also stated “In sports anything can happen” which emphasised that the outcome of bets were in no way guaranteed and the ad made no reference to knowledge of sports increasing gambling success.
They explained that it was accepted that knowledge of a specific sport would on the whole increase a consumer’s chances of success. Many customers researched, studied and followed sports to a degree which would give them an “edge” over a bookmaker. They said their own Trading Team used knowledge, research and information in order to set the odds of specific outcomes. Therefore, customers who generally would have access to the same information would potentially be able to predict the odds of a specific outcome to a similar degree. One of the key elements of sports betting was knowledge of the relevant sport, which was why there was a market for sports tipsters and professional gamblers.
Clearcast said that they felt the ad was in line with similar sports betting treatments, where the focus was on the excitement and possibilities within sports for fans, rather than on the outcome of the bet or on the possibilities of winning. The voice-over invited the viewer to consider all the different outcomes of a game, while making the point that “anything does happen”. While there were several possibilities which could have occurred, there was no way to predict what would actually happen during a game even with good knowledge of the sport. They said they did not believe the ad was irresponsible or promised guaranteed success for those who followed the game.Assessment
Not Upheld
The ad promoted the ‘Request a Bet’ service which enabled consumers to build their own bet, which was highlighted through the depiction of various odds and on-screen graphics. The ad contained a number of references to the role of sports knowledge in betting, such as “spark your sports brain” and “how big is your sports noggin”, and the ASA considered that these would be understood as referencing the potential to use sports knowledge when building a complex bet.
The ad focused on the features of the particular betting service being promoted and we did not consider that it irresponsibly exaggerated the role which sports knowledge played in achieving betting success. The phrase “in sport anything does happen” explicitly recognised the uncertain nature of sporting outcomes. We therefore concluded that the ad was not socially irresponsible and did not breach the Code.
We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules 17.3 and 17.3.1 (Gambling), but did not find it in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
