The Paddy Power half of Paddy Power Betfair has felt the wrath of the UK advertising watchdog over what it deems to be a misleading television advert in the run up to 2016’s Cheltenham festival.
What went wrong?
On Wednesday, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints against the advertisement, which saw an actor manning the ‘Paddsters complaint line’ and clarifying that the operator’s Cheltenham free bet offer was “available to everyone, even riff raff”.The advert used a voice over which claimed that “money back as a free bet if your horse finishes second in all races” at Cheltenham, with the actor on screen adding “That’s every single race, every single day”. 
There were 12 complaints about the advert, mainly in regards to the fine print, which stated that the offer would not be available to anyone who was deemed to be “abusing the offer or using the offer to guarantee profits regardless of the outcome”.
The Paddy Power response
Paddy Power responded to the ASA’s ruling by saying that certain customers had been e-mailed to explain that they would be eligible for the promotion, and the eligibility of each customer was made clear long before a bet could be placed.The operator claimed that the “everyone” in “available to everyone” could easily be construed as referring only to customers who “acted appropriately”.However, this argument was kicked unceremoniously to the curb by the ASA, who said in response that “available to everyone” was an absolute claim, “therefore those customers who were restricted were likely to understand that they could participate.”The ASA added that the terms and conditions section of the advert was not good enough, because it “contradicted rather than clarified” the subject of the advert. For these reasons the complaints were upheld and Paddy Power have been told not to air the advert again in its current form.