The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has overturned a ruling judging a Ladbrokes advertisement to be of possibly strong appeal to those under the age of 18 and in breach of the BCAP and CAP Code.
An advert, which aired on TV and video-on-demand on 17 December 2024 and 23 December 2024, respectively, featured ‘Ladbucks’, the Entain brand’s free-to-play games currency. Imagery of ‘Lb’ coins was shown with text that said ‘100m LADBUCKS’, ‘FREE BETS’ and ‘FREE SPINS’.
The advert featured a voiceover which said: “This is a Ladbuck, the new way to get rewarded at Ladbrokes, and these are some of the 100 million Ladbucks that will be dropping weekly. Collect them on our free-to-play games and choose rewards like free spins, free bets and more.
“Over 100 million Ladbucks dropping every single week. Plus, you can even use them to play your favourite games for free in our Ladbucks arcade. Like Fishin Frenzy and Goldstrike. Start collecting at Ladbrokes.com.”
The ASA upheld two complaints against Ladbrokes for the advert last year in June. Due to its similarities to the in-game currencies of ‘V-bucks’ from Fortnite and ‘Robux’ from Roblox and how many under-18s play video games, it was considered that the Ladbucks name and appearance could be of appeal to minors.
The advert was deemed to be breaking gambling advertising rules by the authority, as the operator was told not to show it again in its current form and not to show content in their adverts that has a strong appeal to under-18s or is reflective of youth culture.
That decision has now been reversed by the ASA, which claimed in its update that, despite having some similar features, the Ladbucks poker-chip styling ‘primarily reflected long-established gambling conventions’.
“We welcome the ASA’s decision to overturn its original ruling on Ladbucks advertising. The independent review has recognised that this was a responsibly designed marketing that does not have a strong appeal to under-18-year-olds.”
Entain spokesperson
Ladbucks was also deemed distinctive from V-bucks and Robux in terms of bright colours, in addition to not being used in a manner to draw references to particular video games.
“We considered that although the name Ladbuck alongside the token’s imagery created some parallels with in-game currencies popular with under-18s, those similarities were not obvious enough to make the ads likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s,” said the ASA.
“Those similar features were generic and did not invite an obvious comparison with the tokens used in Fortnite and Roblox. Therefore, we concluded the ads were not likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.”
The update to the ruling added that no further action is necessary from Entain regarding the Ladbrokes advert.
An Entain spokesperson told iGaming Expert: “We welcome the ASA’s decision to overturn its original ruling on Ladbucks advertising.
“The independent review has recognised that this was a responsibly designed marketing that does not have a strong appeal to under-18-year-olds.”
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