ASA dismisses complaint against bet365 over Chris Eubank Jr tweet
Regulatory body finds that the Stoke-on-Trent-headquartered operator’s promoted tweet did not breach under-18s appeal code
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has dismissed the complaint made against bet365 over a promoted tweet involving Chris Eubank r. in January 2023.
The tweet centred around Eubank Jr’s fight with Liam Smith in Manchester, with an image of the former and a caption that read: “It’s fight week! Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Smith will be Unleashed in Manchester. Click here for latest odds”.
The complaint argued that the use of Eubank Jr would pose a strong appeal to under-18s and therefore breached the CAP code.
In response to the complaint, bet365 said the tweet was only visible to those users over the age of 25 and to those individuals who had displayed an interest in the content.
The operator also stated it had carried out a risk assessment around using the boxer against CAP guidelines on gambling and lotteries advertising and were satisfied that he did not carry a significant interest to under-18s.
Bet365 said that measuring against the guidance, the 33-year-old had a “low or moderate risk” due to the fact boxing is an adult-orientated sport and his appeal to young people was minimal.
The firm did acknowledge Eubank Jr’s appearance on Celebrity Gogglebox but said that this constituted low risk because the show was televised after 9pm, and the appearances were brief.
The operator also noted that previous ASA rulings commented that Celebrity Gogglebox was “primarily aimed at an adult audience” and was unlikely to have resulted in a significant change in an individual’s level of appeal to under-18s.
The ASA did not uphold the complaint as it agreed with the operator that boxing is considered an adult-orientated sport, and it did not consider the fight itself to have major appeal to under-18s.
The regulator also delved into Eubank Jr’s follower demographic and found that most of his followers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter were over 18, but 32% of his TikTok followers were under 18.
However, the ASA noted that the boxer has just 21,000 followers on TikTok compared to more than 1.7 million across all social media channels, which did not imply a strong appeal to under-18s.