Betfair censured over claims in advert of 40% better odds.Byline: Graham Green A POSTER claiming Betfair's odds are "40% better than SP" has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the independent British self regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. after a complaint by a pressure group that campaigns for the honest use of statistics. Straight Statistics lodged its objection on the basis that the natural interpretation most punters would put on the advert was that if you placed a bet with Betfair, you stood to gain a 40 per cent better return than betting at SP. In its evidence to the ASA Asa (ā`sə), in the Bible, king of Judah, son and successor of Abijah. He was a good king, zealous in his extirpation of idols. When Baasha of Israel took Ramah (a few miles N of Jerusalem), Asa bought the help of Benhadad of Damascus and , Betfair provided a spreadsheet showing that in just more than 17,000 races since the betting exchange launched its own SP in December 2007, a gambler staking pounds 10 would have been pounds 460,817 better off than placing the same bets at industry SP, a figure that equated to 41 per cent. Betfair said the claim was not intended to guarantee its customers would, in every case, receive returns at Betfair SP that were at least 40 per cent better than those available from the standard SP. It maintained that the claim would be seen as an average, and that the nature of the comparison would be clear to consumers. The ASA adjudication The legal process of resolving a dispute. The formal giving or pronouncing of a judgment or decree in a court proceeding; also the judgment or decision given. The entry of a decree by a court in respect to the parties in a case. said the claim was not qualified in any way and that punters were likely to infer that such a figure was typical of what they could expect. In its judgement, the ASA said: "We noted Betfair's data demonstrated that a significant majority of winners had a significantly lower difference between BSP BSP Bromsulphalein, a dye used in the study of liver function. See also sulfobromophthalein clearance test. and the industry SP. "Around 3,000 of the total 17,000 races had a BSP either the same or worse than the industry SP, and around 12,000 had a BSP that was only 20 per cent better or less, while around only 2,000 had a BSP that was 40 per cent better or more. "We considered that the basic average figure used by Betfair was skewed due to the influence of winners with very long odds that tended to have a disproportionately higher difference between BSP and industry SP. "Because we considered that Betfair had not shown that the average figure they used was typically representative of the difference between the BSP and SP, we considered that the claim was likely to mislead." Straight Statistics director Nigel Hawkes said: "I'm delighted that our claim has been upheld. "We are strongly in favour of the punter getting a good deal, but misrepresentation misrepresentation In law, any false or misleading expression of fact, usually with the intent to deceive or defraud. It most commonly occurs in insurance and real-estate contracts. False advertising may also constitute misrepresentation. must be stamped on hard." |
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