Change to gambling advertising

[freebetsfreetips]

Have had an email from Bet365 regarding changes to gambling advertising and similar from BetVictor. Just wanted to know if anyone else was concerned about this or making any changes to their site. Obviously we use phrases such as "free bet" but always explain the terms in the post.

[PromoteCasino]

Have not had an email from Bet365 yet. Can you elaborate more on the changes please

[TheGooner]

Yes we've had the emails too.

Actually we had to work thruogh this with Bet365 about 6 months earlier as our serps featured highly.
The term "free bet" is basically forbidden - unless it really is free (no deposit required).

The new terms are matched bet - welcome bonus - etc.

[JackTenSuited]

Actually we had to work thruogh this with Bet365 about 6 months earlier as our serps featured highly.
The term "free bet" is basically forbidden - unless it really is free (no deposit required).
.

wasn't that for the Australian market? or does that apply everywhere now?

[thebookiesoffers]

wasn't that for the Australian market? or does that apply everywhere now?

It was the Australian market six months back but I think they are clamping down all over now

[TheGooner]

It's part of the UK licensing commission code of practice and is being enforced.

(extract from BetVictor email)

BetVictor Limited is licensed and regulated by the Great Britain Gambling Commission (the Commission) and we are obligated to ensure that all marketing of BetVictor Limited including by any affiliate must comply with the Commission’s regulations issued in the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practise (LCCP). If any of our affiliates do not comply with the GB regulations, our Regulator requires us to discontinue our relationship with them, which we do not want to do as we value our affiliate relationships.

(extract from Bet365 email)

As you may or may not be aware, new regulations have come into force in relation to the UK gambling advertising.
As a result, we have reviewed how our offers and promotions are being advertised to the UK market.

Here is a link to the regs ...
http://cap.org.uk/~/media/Files/CAP/...%20_Final.ashx

And here is a major issue regarding the use of the word free ...

Free
Marketing communications must not describe a product as “free”, “gratis”, “without charge” or similar if the consumer has to pay anything other than the unavoidable cost of responding and collecting or paying for delivery of the item.


3.23
Marketing communications must make clear the extent of the commitment the consumer must make to take advantage of a “free” offer.

-----------------------

SUMMARY :

There are all sort of new directions with particular concern towards the word "free". And Betvictor are even removing / renaming / redirecting landing page URLs that had the word free .... so I think it's going to be a significant item for most programs (and UK advertising affiliates).

I guess a lot of exact word domains just became obsolete?

[Omeister]

I have noticed on Twitter over the last few day's that the Bet365 twitter account is actually clamping down on this by tweeting people advertising the welcome offer as a free bet and warning them.
Very interesting for me as I'm just building my website and was going to base a lot of it around the term 'Free Bet' however I'm still at the start so Im happy this has come to light now rather than six months down the road!

[RacingJim]

Yes we've had the emails too.

Actually we had to work thruogh this with Bet365 about 6 months earlier as our serps featured highly.
The term "free bet" is basically forbidden - unless it really is free (no deposit required).

The new terms are matched bet - welcome bonus - etc.

Yep I also had to work through this several months back with Bet365 changing all references to free bet to other things such as deposit bonus. Glad they are making everyone do it as it was a bit unfair clamping down on some people when others were still floating the 'free bet' term around freely on their sites.

Does make you wonder for the future of 'free bet' sites but I guess we will all just have to adapt what we do to suit the rules.

[baldidiot]

I guess a lot of exact word domains just became obsolete?

People will still search for 'free bets' though, so the traffic for it will continue for the foreseable future even if on the sites themselves you can't call the specific offers a free bet.

Maybe this shift in terminology by the bookies will lead to an eventual change in search behaviour, but I can't see all the punters suddenly changing their habits over night.

[RacingJim]

People will still search for 'free bets' though, so the traffic for it will continue for the foreseable future even if on the sites themselves you can't call the specific offers a free bet.

Maybe this shift in terminology by the bookies will lead to an eventual change in search behaviour, but I can't see all the punters suddenly changing their habits over night.

Agree totally, the free bets world will be around for a while yet.

[golfbettingsystem]

Interesting reading the article in the latest iGB mag about google Hummingbird, in theory even if we all had to (and complied 100%) change on-page terminology away from 'free bet' to, say, 'deposit bonus' then Hummingbird should be intelligent enough to realise it's the same thing and rank pages accordingly when the prospective punters searches for 'free bet'.

[TheGooner]

People will still search for 'free bets' though, so the traffic for it will continue for the foreseable future even if on the sites themselves you can't call the specific offers a free bet.

If a program doesn't want affiliates using the "free bet" term because it now breaches the advertising guidelines then continuing to use "free bet" as an affiliate and rank for free bet may see the relationship terminated. That's been the message.

It really does depend on how strong the UKGC and therefore the affiliate programs go with these changes. So far only BetVictor and Bet365 have said anything to us about it.

[baldidiot]

If a program doesn't want affiliates using the "free bet" term because it now breaches the advertising guidelines then continuing to use "free bet" as an affiliate and rank for free bet may see the relationship terminated. That's been the message.

It really does depend on how strong the UKGC and therefore the affiliate programs go with these changes. So far only BetVictor and Bet365 have said anything to us about it.

I don't really see it this way. All the bookies care about is their offer not being miss communicated so they don't fall foul of UKGC and the ASA, I don't see how they can complain about a domain if the offer is promoted to the letter of the law - especially as sites like freebets.com have pretty much established their domain as a brand rather than a simple exact match.

Besides, even if the UKCG/ASA decided to crack down on sites using free bet domains you could just spin it a different way - off the top of my head you could run a 'for fun' fantasty betting site or something with the bookies offers marked as 'advertising'. Or just give away a handful of free bets yourself so the site name isn't missleading and then have a separate section for deposit bonuses (clearly marked as such). And so on...

(None of my significant revenue domains use free bet terms in the domain btw, just in case you were wondering.)

[donnikalas]

Agree totally, the free bets world will be around for a while yet.

Yoo are right!