Football Index Ad Banned By Regulator

Football Index Ad Banned By Regulator

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint regarding a Football Index advertisement that the complainant reported because he believed the Ad implied the product was a reliable source of income and did not make the financial risks clear, therefore it was irresponsible because it was presented as an investment opportunity.

Football Index is a growing business that describes itself as the world’s largest football stock market where users can buy and sell footballers with real money.

In this particular case, the Ad was a video that appeared on a 3rd party site and featured two representatives of The Football Index being interviewed about what the product was and how it worked. During this conversation, one of the representatives says “ With Football Index, it’s a long, ongoing bet, so you’ve got multiple opportunities to win, but also the ability to cash out at any time.”

In their assessment of the claim, the ASA noted that the substantial discussion in the video from the Football Index representatives around how money could be generated from the platform created the impression that the product was a lucrative investment opportunity. 

In upholding the complaint the ASA told Betindex the owner of the Football Index site that they must ensure that their future marketing communications did not encourage gambling behaviour that was socially irresponsible. 

Only last month Football Index were told by the ASA to withdraw a Facebook Ad that featured football players under the age of 25. This was found to be in breach of The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code)  that states no one who is or appears to be under 25 years old may be featured playing a significant role in gambling marketing communications that are shown outside of the operator’s facility or website. 

In March of this year, Football Index announced that it had generated £200M of trades on its platform since the beginning of the 2018-19 season from 135 000 traders putting it on course for a ten-fold increase in trading on 2 years earlier! 

One of the reasons for the phenomenal growth has been TV advertising and the £500 money-back welcome offer that is available to all new Football Index Traders.  

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By Matchedbets Experts

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