Bet365 scary emails about Australian Customers

[RacingJim]

Anyone else getting these? Looks like they've been having trouble with their advertising of 'free bets' in Australia and are telling all affiliates to take down any such text to do with free bet offers in Australia.

I don't actively target Australia but the odd Aussie does slip through and sign up through my offers, which are all shown in £ currency. Bit scared now.

[blendtec]

Same here..seems like their biggest concern is if people downloaded their old banners targeting australians and hosted those banners that have the offer they are being sued for. I don't actively promote to Aus either so I don't have any of the offer text on-site that is now prohibited.

[Pmig]

I also receive that, maybe was sent to all affiliates as I also don't target AUS maket.

Meanwhile I reply to the email saying that with cc of my maketing and op manager just in case

Edit: Already got a answer, if you dont target AUS market (and dont have banners or any related material to that market) you dont need to worry.

[thebookiesoffers]

don't worry about, I target Australia with one site and have been working with bet365 over this all week. Only a problem if you are actively advertising in Australia and using the free bet offer to drive traffic

[RacingJim]

Yeh they just told me that as I get the occasional Aussie signup, I need to take the 'free bet' references off my stuff as I don't currently geo-target.

Other option would be geo-target and change the page for Aussie only customers which I will proabably start to do soon, but they are changing their wording in the UK also, I guess they are scared of the same type of thing happening in the UK as well.

[thedietberger]

I hope this isnt the start of more restrictions to come in Oz.

[grem]

Is an alarming email and got the same but don't target Australians but will reply.

[Renee]

The laws in Oz regarding advertising sports are getting stricter. I haven't seen a change recently, or though there could be one, so could have something to do with that.
I remember them changing something about in play betting and stuff because Tom Waterhouse was abusing it. Don't remember the exact details though.

[thebookiesoffers]

The laws in Oz regarding advertising sports are getting stricter. I haven't seen a change recently, or though there could be one, so could have something to do with that.
I remember them changing something about in play betting and stuff because Tom Waterhouse was abusing it. Don't remember the exact details though.

it's because they were advertising their bonus offer as a free bet and technically it aint free as it's a matched bonus

[ALEXRAW]

We also now and bookmaker offices are not very well treated

[lufc]

I replied to the email with some questions but haven't hard anything back

[TheGooner]

We actually went through a similar process with Bet365 for their UK advertising about six months ago due to our positions on Google for their brand and "free bet". We needed everything to be technically correct according to UK advertising statutes.

It's more semantics than anything else - Bet365 are not changing their offer but various legislations have decided some words and phrases are just too tempting and not exact descriptions of what is being offered. (specifically it's not a free bet if you have to deposit something)

If the legislation makes Bet365 responsible (and liable) for the words of affiliates then they are obligated to get it sorted quickly.

This is one of those examples where it shows that having thousands of inactive affiliates IS a problem for programs. I suspect that we will see some complaints from webmasters with 100 different "set and forget" sites in the near future as they either struggle to update / or don't respond and have their affiliate account closed / suspended.