ASA Upholds Ruling Against LEBOM over Irresponsible Gambling Ads

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld two complaints against LEBOM Ltd regarding the company’s paid-for social media ads for its peer-to-peer sports betting app. The ruling reinforces the regulator’s strict stance on gambling and alcohol in marketing, particularly when promotional materials appear to glorify risky behavior, potentially harming consumers.

Problematic Elements Could Lead to Consumer Harm

The ASA investigated two ads, one on Facebook and the other on X (formerly Twitter). The promos starred online influencer Mashtag Brady, featuring him and his friends gambling on Premier League matches through the LEBOM app, binge-drinking, celebrating the £200 ($272) prize pot, and engaging in a forfeit for losing.

In the Facebook ad, Brady enthusiastically described how the app works: pooling money with friends, wagering, and letting the top scorer collect the winnings.  Shots of alcohol, partying, and a humiliating penalty for the loser, walking through a crowded bar in underwear, rounded out the scene. In the X version, Brady amplified the mood with the phrase “Let’s go get absolutely f**ked up.”

Complaints targeting the ads raised two issues, contending that the promos depicted irresponsible gambling and encouraged excessive drinking. The ASA agreed with both assessments. The authority concluded that the winner receiving praise, with the loser getting publicly humiliated, implied that success at gambling enhances social status, violating multiple CAP Code rules around gambling ads.

LEBOM Complied with the ASA’s Instructions

According to the ASA, associating betting with increased self-esteem or admiration from one’s peers was strictly forbidden. LEBOM claimed to depict gambling as a realistic social experience, noting that the app featured several safe gaming measures, including maximum stakes and game frequency limits. However, the regulator contended that the ads sought to reinforce the idea that betting outcomes shape personal esteem and acceptance, a harmful message in any context. 

Marketing communications that portrayed a character being treated with admiration by others as a result of their gambling are likely to link gambling with improved self-esteem.

ASA statement

On the alcohol front, the ASA judged that the ads encouraged binge drinking despite the company’s assurances that these depictions were incidental. The authority noted that alcohol was directly woven into the activity of gambling itself. With phrases like “Let’s go get absolutely f**ked up” directly associated with group betting and celebrations, the ads could be interpreted to glamorize excessive drinking, blurring the lines between gambling and substance use.

Marketing communications must contain nothing likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that were unwise. For example, they should not encourage excessive drinking.

ASA statement

ASA instructed LEBOM to remove the offending parts of the promos and guarantee that future content avoids such harmful messaging. While LEBOM had already pulled the ads before the investigation, this case is not the company’s first brush with regulators. In 2022, it faced a brief license revocation by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for failing to integrate with GAMSTOP, the UK national self-exclusion scheme.