Ladbrokes launches free-pitch campaign with Powerleague

The campaign will see footballers offered “Prime-Time Pitches” at Powerleague clubs in the UK and Ireland.

UK.- Entain’s Ladbrokes has launched a promotional campaign with Powerleague to launch a tournament and provide football players free access to pitches for free. The “Prime-Time Pitches” campaign will offer the chance to use pitches on Thursdays at 10 Powerleague Clubs including in London, Birmingham, Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.

A nationwide five-a-side football tournament featuring 480 teams at four Powerleague Clubs will lead to a final in Birmingham. Matches will feature live music, screenings and celebrity appearances. Powerleague’s pitch cameras will capture moments on the pitch. There will be prizes going for the best moments, which Ladbrokes will be able to share on its social media.

Ladbrokes head of brand Kelly Rose said: “We can’t wait to kick off this partnership with Powerleague. It will help Ladbrokes build a presence at the heart of football culture and entertainment, and really underlines our “We Play Together” proposition.

“We want to give players of all levels the opportunity to have a chance of claiming a pitch at a prime time for free and our first-ever national tournament promises to mix football with popular culture in a way that has never been done before.”

Powerleague head of commercial Dominic Reed commented: “We’re thrilled to be launching this partnership with Ladbrokes and building on the “We Play Together” messaging which resonates so well with us. Powerleague customers and the wider 5-a-side community are in for a real game-changing experience in tournament football at their local Powerleague venue. 

“We hope over the duration of the partnership many more players from our local communities have the chance to claim their prime-time slots and engage in the health and wellbeing benefits that Powerleague offers.”

The collaboration was arranged by M&C Saatchi, with PR support from Finn Partners. Last month, Ladbrokes got a ticking off for breaching new UK rules for gambling adverts. It’s the first operator to have been found in breach of the rules that prohibit ads that have a “strong appeal” to minors. 

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a Ladbrokes ad that was posted in a tweet in October because it featured several Premier League footballers. The tweet featured the text  “Can these big summer signings make the question marks over their performances go away?” together with a video that featured the footballers Philippe Coutinho, Jesse Lingard and Kalidou Koulibaly.

Gambling adverts were previously prohibited from having “particular appeal” to children, which was defined as a disproportionate appeal to minors when compared to its appeal to adults. However, last year the Committee of Advertising Practice updated its rules and changed the prohibition to ban “strong appeal”, which no longer considers whether an ad appeals more to minors than adults, merely whether it appeals to a large number of minors.