British ad watchdog bans Paddy Power radio ad

The ASA has banned the ad because the terms and condition were unintelligible.

UK.- The British advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has reprimanded Flutter’s Paddy Power over a radio ad where the reading of terms and conditions were done too quickly. The ASA ruled that the voiceover was “not clear and intelligible”.

The ad, which ran in December, promoted a Bet Builder free bet offer. The voiceover at the end of the ad read the terms and conditions (minimum odds of 1/5 per leg, a minimum of four legs, a maximum free bet of £10 per day, and the exclusion of enhanced match odds).

However, one person complained that they were read too fast, and at too low a volume.

Paddy Power argued that it had not sped up the recording and that no background noise was used in order to make the terms easier to hear, but the ASA decided it was not possible to take in the conditions. Paddy Power must not use the ad again in the same form.

The ASA said: “We considered that information about the offer applying to selected online bets was material information that consumers required in order to make an informed decision. These therefore must be presented to listeners in a clear and intelligible manner.

“Because those conditions had not been presented in a clear and intelligible manner, we concluded that the ad was misleading.”

It’s not the first time that Paddy Power’s been chastised by the ASA in recent months. In December, it was told off for online ads in The Sun in the UK and Ireland that offered players a “£20 risk free first bet”.

The ASA found fault with the suggestion that betting could be risk-free. Meanwhile, Flutter’s Sky Bet has fallen foul of the Gambling Commission for an email blunder that saw promotional email sent to self-excluded customers.