Coral bookmakers hit with advertising ban over promoted Manchester City FC tweet
Betting shop Coral has been hit with an advertising ban over a promoted tweet which was deemed to be “misleading” to consumers.
Coral has received a ban from the advertising watchdog over the tweet / ASA Manchester City Coral Tweet Ban
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) took issue with a paid-for post sent from Coral’s official account which read: ‘The easiest £40 you'll make this week! Stake £5 on 5/4 Real Madrid to beat Man City and get paid out at 8/1’ in reference to Manchester City FC’s game against the Spanish side in the Champion’s League Final.
Posted in April, the tweet was accompanied by the above image which showed a woman holding a sign and a flag attached to the sign which stated, ‘winnings paid in free bets’.
A member of the public complained that the promotion did not make it sufficiently clear that winnings would be paid in free bet tokens; something the ASA agreed with.
Coral asserted that the ad included a large yellow flag clearly stated that winnings would be paid out in free bets, but the ASA said that as the main body of the tweet referred to £40 in winnings that followers were likely to believe that the reward would be paid out in cash.
The regulator said that while it acknowledged the text on the flag, it thought that the font was “small relative to the text in the body of the tweet or the other claims within the image.”
“We therefore considered it was not sufficiently prominent to counter the impression that the winnings would be paid out in cash,” it added.
Coral has been warned not to show the ad again in its current form, and to ensure future campaigns make it clear to gamblers when winnings will be paid out in free bets.