William Hill has had three adverts banned by UK advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The ASA upheld complaints that two web ads and one TV ad containing claims that the bookmaker offered the best odds and prices were misleading, after it concluded that William Hill was unable to substantiate these comparative claims.
Hill’s had defended itself against the complaints lodged against ads on sports.williamhill.com claiming to offer “Best Prices on the Best Horses” and “Euro 2012 Best Prices on the Best Teams” by arguing that the explanation for these claims could be found on pages throughout their website, but the bookmaker was unfortunately unable to provide screen shots of those pages.
Regarding their TV advert claiming “Best Odds Guaranteed”, Hill’s told the ASA the information was contained on their website, of which they did manage to provide a screen shot, and also argued that this was now a commonly understood industry term - that customers knew they would receive “whichever was better; the price when they placed their bet or the Starting Price.”
But the ASA concluded that the claims in the print ads had been unsubstantiated and that most viewers of the channels the TV ad appeared on would not be familiar with the full meaning of “Best Odds Guaranteed”, and ordered that the ads not appear again in their current form.
The UK advertising regulator did however welcome William Hill’s response that it now understood the importance of retaining information to substantiate such comparative claims, and would ensure they always did so in future.
