Ladbrokes Break Rules by Using Manchester United Player in Ad

Gambling giant Ladbrokes has run into some problems with the Advertising Standards Authority, after they featured the young Manchester United player Mempis Depay in an advert.

The issue is that there is a rule in the UK that prohibits people under the age of 25 playing a significant part in advertising for gambling.  The Dutch player is only 21, but Ladbrokes used his image on an email sent out to customers. The email was a marketing piece involving a money back offer and this is where they ran into trouble.

There are actually a couple of situations in which Ladbrokes could have used the image of Depay without encountering these problems. For instance, it is ok to show the picture of someone under 25 on your gambling site if they are the subject of a bet or a topic on the site. The advertising authority stated that had Ladbrokes used the photo on their site it would have been okay.    

This isn’t the first time that a betting firm has fallen foul of this particular advertising law. Indeed, only last month Coral, Totesport and Bet 365 all get into trouble for using images of 22 year old US Open golf champion Jordan Spiety on Twitter to promote their betting options.

In this case, the gambling companies tried to explain their reason for using the young player's image on a tweet, to try and avoid an advertising ban or fine. However, they each ended up getting advertising bans for their troubles.