Betway is to pay a total of £408,915 after the UK Gambling Commission discovered marketing material on the children’s pages of West Ham United’s website.
Enquiries undertaken by the regulator found that between April 14, 2020, and November 6, 2021, the operator’s gambling logo, which linked to its website, was displayed on a webpage offering the opportunity to print a teddy bear for children to colour in.
Furthermore, it was also detected that a logo with a link to the operator’s web page featured on the ‘Young Hammers at Home’ webpage between October 24, 2021, and November, 15 2021.
Both advertisements breached Commission rules which outline that all marketing of gambling products and services must be undertaken in a socially responsible manner.
Leanne Oxley, Gambling Commission Director of Enforcement, said: “Protecting children from gambling harm is at the heart of what we do.
“Although there is no suggestion that the operator was deliberately targeting children, or that children had been allowed to gamble, we take the breach of any rules aimed at protecting children extremely seriously.
“We note the remedial actions since taken by licensee but advise all operators to learn from this case and ensure that they take responsibility and have the correct processes in place so that websites directed at children do not include advertisements for gambling.”
The UKGC noted the remedial action that was taken by the licensee and acknowledged the co-operation with the Commission throughout the investigation.
In March 2020, Betway agreed to pay £11.6m for a series of social responsibility and money laundering failings linked to dealings with seven of its high spending customers following an investigation.
The UKGC said that in one instance the operator failed to carry out source of funds checks on a ‘VIP’ customer who deposited over £8m and lost over £4m during a four-year period. In another, Betway failed to carry out effective social responsibility interactions with a customer who deposited and lost £187,000 in two days.
