Ladbrokes adverts banned again for breaking rules over appealing to under-18s

Ladbrokes have fallen foul of the advertising watchdog for the second week in a row after two of the bookmaker's adverts on Twitter were found to have broken rules on appealing to under-18s.

The two promoted tweets for Ladbrokes appeared in January and February this year, the first featuring Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe and the second promoting the firm's odds on the next manager to leave, which included the images of four Premier League bosses.

The rules governing gambling advertising changed in October last year to state that they must not be likely to be of strong appeal to children or young people. 

Under the guidance, managers of Premier League football teams were considered high risk, and so the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) challenged whether the ads included individuals who were likely to be of strong appeal to those under 18 years of age.

Ladbrokes said the tweet featuring Howe was intended to be editorial content, with no calls to action, promotional offers or links directing consumers to their website. They also argued it was unlikely that he would appeal strongly to under-18s.

However, the firm did acknowledge the second tweet had "inadvertently" included imagery of the managers, which was contrary to their guidance for commercially-oriented content.

The ASA said that managers of top clubs were likely to appeal strongly to children and that, while the ads were targeted at over-25s, Ladbrokes had not excluded under-18s from the audience.

"For those reasons, we concluded the ads were irresponsible and breached the code," the ASA added, telling Ladbrokes the adverts must not appear again in their current form.

Last week another Ladbrokes advert on Twitter featuring YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul was banned by the ASA for appealing to under-18s.

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