Who: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), Betway Ltd t/a Betway and Cyan Blue Odds Ltd t/a Oddschecker
Where: United Kingdom
When: 27 May 2026 and 4 June 2026
Law stated as at: 8 June 2026
What happened
The ASA published two rulings on 27 May 2026 – one involving a betting company (Betway) and the other an online betting platform (Oddschecker), where in both cases the advertisers’ organic social media posts featured well-known footballers. The ASA investigated whether the ads were likely to have strong appeal to under-18s in breach of the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing (CAP Code).
Betway adjudication: retired footballer’s profile insufficient to establish strong appeal to under-18s
A social media post from Betway, seen in November 2025, featured an image of Thierry Henry alongside a quote about Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League, and included the Betway logo.
The complaint was not upheld. Betway argued that while Thierry Henry was a professional footballer, he had officially retired from football over a decade ago, and left the Premier League in 2007 (with the exception of a short loan to Arsenal in 2012). He was therefore more likely to be recognised by adult fans. At the time of the ad, Mr Henry’s role was focused on adult sports punditry and analysis. His punditry work was primarily for an American network not available in the UK, and he made only occasional guest appearances on a UK football programme providing Premier League coverage. Betway also provided analysis which estimated that only approximately 19,483 of Thierry Henry’s social media followers were both under 18 and UK-based, which is below the rule of thumb of 100,000 under-18 followers which is indicative of strong appeal in the updated CAP guidance.
The ASA agreed with Betway’s assessment of Mr Henry’s appeal to children given the time passed since his retirement and infrequent appearance on UK TV. The ASA said that he therefore was more likely to be recognised as a TV sports pundit.
CAP guidance states that retired footballers who had moved into punditry would be assessed on the basis of their social and other media profile. The ASA considered that Mr Henry’s social media profile was unlikely to indicate that he was of strong appeal to under-18s as any error in Betway’s numbers regarding his social media presence would need to be considerable to bring that figure close to the threshold.
Oddschecker adjudication: active top-flight footballers’ profiles establish strong appeal to under-18s
Two social media posts from Oddschecker, also seen in November 2025, featured images of Harry Kane and Erling Haaland respectively, alongside captions referencing betting odds on Harry Kane to win the Ballon d’Or and Norway to win the 2026 World Cup.
Oddschecker argued that the posts were primarily editorial in nature, rather than an invitation to gamble. It also argued that it recognised the heightened risk associated with featuring top-flight footballers, but that to mitigate that risk it had implemented account-level measures to restrict access to adults and that the account bio clearly indicated that the account was for 18-plus users.
The ASA appreciated that Oddschecker’s service was not itself gambling, but it placed consumers in a position where they were interacting with gambling services. It considered that the purpose of both posts was to promote the placing of a bet with a bookmaker through Oddschecker and therefore the CAP Code applied.
Based on evidence from Ofcom’s research, the ASA considered that there was at least a significant number of children who had not used their real date of birth when signing up to social media platforms. The ASA concluded that the account-level age restriction implemented by Oddschecker was insufficient to prevent under-18s from accessing the content.
Harry Kane, who played for Bayern Munich at the time the ad was seen, was Tottenham Hotspur’s top scorer, the second highest scorer in Premier League history, and captain and highest scorer of the England national team, all of which indicated a high risk of strong appeal to under-18s. Erling Haaland, who played for Manchester City and held the record for most goals in a Premier League season, as well as being UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, was similarly considered to present a high risk of strong appeal as a non-UK “star” footballer with a significant audience in the UK.
Enforcement notice
The ASA states that its artificial intelligence-based Active Ad Monitoring system scans around 10,000 paid online ads each month by licensed gambling operators, with any high-risk ads identified then reviewed by experts.
On 4 June 2026, CAP published an enforcement notice stating that despite having updated its guidance on gambling advertising and the ASA’s rulings, CAP and the ASA continue to occasionally identify gambling ads that include sports stars, club logos, stadiums or branding likely to make them of strong appeal to under-18s. They noted their intention to begin actively monitoring and enforcing compliance from 11 June 2026.
Why this matters
These rulings underscore how and when the ASA’s rules extend to organic posts on gambling companies’ social media feeds and demonstrate how the strong appeal rules and guidance are applied to gambling ads. The contrast between the Betway and Oddschecker decisions gives gambling operators practical clarity on the factors that matter: playing status, nature of punditry, social media demographics and the extent of UK-specific reach. Operators should review all advertising, withdrawing any live ads likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s and avoiding publishing future non-compliant ads.
