ASA rules against promoted tweet by bet365

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against a bet365 promoted tweet that featured Swiss footballer Granit Xhaka.

The promoted tweet was identified as potentially breaching advertising regulations by the ASA’s artificial intelligence system Active Ad Monitoring.

The tweet was published by Sky Sports Premier League and promoted by bet365 in February 2023. It featured the text “Granit Xhaka pulled out this stunning finish last season in Arsenal vs Man United”. The tweet contained an embedded video which opened with a footballer kicking a ball from the corner. As he did so, a green digital circle appeared around him. As the ball travelled, a green triangle appeared where the ball had been kicked and then the bet365 logo appeared.

The video then cut to footage from a football match between Arsenal and Manchester United and showed Granit Xhaka scoring a goal as the crowd cheered. The score of the match then appeared overlayed onto the video.

The ASA accused bet365 of featuring an individual in their ad who was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s, in breach of the CAP Code, due to their promotion of the tweet.

“Because bet365 had promoted the tweet, we considered that they had incorporated all of the tweet’s contents into their advertising, and the whole tweet was therefore an ad for bet365,” the ASA said in its ruling.

“The ad included Granit Xhaka who was a player at Arsenal Football Club at the time the ad was seen and would be well known to the fans of that club, and also to those who followed Premier League football more generally, including children. We also considered that he would be well known for being captain of the Swiss national team. We therefore considered he was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.”

The ad was found to have breached CAP codes 16.1, 16.3 and 16.3.12.