The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken aim at Betfred and ordered the group to increase the safeguards around its ads potentially being exposed to minors.
The advert was for Betfred’s live casino offering and appeared on the show, PrestonPlayz on streaming service The Roku Channel.
Key to the ad was a voice-over which said: “Welcome to Betfred Casino. Here you can play a range of slot and table games or take a seat in our live casino.”
The advertising regulator emphasised that the ad ‘must not be used again without further, specific targeting to minimise the likelihood of under-18s being exposed to it’.
In response, Betfred stated that whenever it purchased media, that proactive steps had been taken to ensure that they complied with the Advertising Codes of Practice, and that any third-party agency was also compliant.
Nonetheless, the operator added that the media in question was sourced through their media agency via a further media agency that focused on addressable TV.
According to the ASA, Betfred also revealed it had instructed their media agency that the ad should specifically only be broadcast to adults and that any content that was aimed at under 18s should be removed from the media supply.
The addressable TV agency had confirmed that they had received those instructions from Betfred’s media agency, and that they shared them with Roku at the start of the campaign.
Betfred went on to detail that the target audience for the ad was based on third-party survey data.
In its response, the operator added: “The habits and lifestyles of individuals over the age of 16 were surveyed and mapped out, allowing companies to identify target audiences based on adult behaviours.
“That data was used to target the ad to men aged between 25 and 44 years who used online sports betting sites at least once a year, spent money on betting, or used a smartphone or tablet to access online sports betting. Once the target audience was built, it was uploaded into a programmatic database that matched the targeting with media options such as the Roku platform.”
