ASA upholds ruling against Optival over betting ad targeting
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Optival Ltd, trading as bestbookiesandbettingsites.co.uk, after a paid search ad promoting betting sites appeared following a search for “self exclusion bookies”.
Automated report. This article was drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed below, without a human writing step. Gambling News labels every article produced this way. A person is answerable for it: if something here is wrong, write to editor@gamblingnews.co.uk and we will correct it on the page and say what changed.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad, seen on 10 August, appeared in response to a search for “self exclusion bookies”. The text promoted a comparison of the “Top 15 Betting Sites UK” and offered an exclusive first bet bonus and welcome offers from UK online sports betting brands.
A complainant challenged whether the ad had been irresponsibly targeted. Optival Ltd told the ASA it had never deliberately targeted the phrase “self exclusion bookies” and said a review of its search term reports found no record of searches containing “self exclusion” triggering its ads. The company said it maintained negative keyword lists intended to block searches linked to self-exclusion, GamStop and problem gambling, and suggested the ad’s appearance was an isolated case falling below the platform’s reporting thresholds, possibly caused by automated query matching. It said it would expand its negative keyword exclusions to prevent similar occurrences in future.
The ASA said a person searching for “self exclusion bookies” was likely seeking help to limit their exposure to gambling, and so was likely to include vulnerable consumers. It said an ad promoting betting sites and bonus offers was not appropriate in that context, even though bestbookiesandbettingsites.co.uk operated as an affiliate comparison site rather than a gambling operator itself.
The ASA said marketers of gambling-related services should have extremely robust controls to prevent inappropriate targeting given the potential for harm to vulnerable people. It said that although it welcomed Optival’s plan to strengthen its negative keyword exclusions, sufficiently robust measures should already have been in place.
The ASA concluded the ad breached CAP Code rule 1.3 on social responsibility. It ruled that the ad must not appear again in response to the search “self exclusion bookies” and told Optival Ltd to ensure its search ads were responsibly targeted.