Football index Sanctioned by ASA

Internet sportsbetting group BetIndex has been sanctioned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority for featuring an ad that had five football players under the age of 25.

The offending ad was a Facebook spot that was featured players Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Marcus Rashford, and Kylian Mbappé, all of whom were under the age of 25. The issue at hand is that UK advertising laws state that no person under 25 may be shown to have a significant role in any betting advertisement.

The operator said that they didn't believe that the athletes played a prominent role, but the ASA disagreed, ruling: "We understood the intention of the ad was to illustrate the nature of the gambling app and how it could be played.

"However, we considered that of equal measure was its aim to offer the audience an opportunity to use the app for the purposes of gambling. In that context, while the significance of the players under 25 was no greater than the other players featured, we considered that all listed footballers were the focus of the post, and that each of them played an equally significant role in the marketing communication."

Under the ruling, the ad cannot run in the current form again. While BetIndex disagreed with the decision, they will be forced to comply.