Tottenham banned from promoting William Hill sponsorship alongside their starting line-up on Twitter if players under 25 are involved in squad
- Tottenham have fallen foul of a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority
- The club are used to putting William Hill links in their line-up announcements
- The regulator has deemed they cannot use link if squad has player under 25
The UK’s advertising regulator has told Tottenham Hotspur not to tweet their line-up alongside promotions for betting firm William Hill if players aged under 25 are shown.
For Champions League clashes, Spurs announce their starting XI with a link to the bookmakers’ website, offering their 3.4million followers the ‘latest odds’ on the game.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) warned Tottenham that showing pictures of their younger players, such as 22-year-old Davinson Sanchez, is in breach of gambling rules.
Tottenham tweets like this have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority
Sanchez and 23-year-old Harry Winks appeared in a tweet on March 5 ahead of Tottenham’s 1-0 away win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. It was retweeted close to 1,000 times and liked by 3,600.
The ASA reminded Spurs of the rules and the club will now not show their full team in tweets. Instead, they will show a picture of one player who is over 25.
Promotions for betting companies in football has become a controversial issue for the way it has engulfed the English game. It has led to a clampdown amid fears it could appeal to children.
Tottenham argued their case but the ASA found against the Premier League club
On the Tottenham and William Hill tweets, the ASA said: ‘The ad must not appear again in the form complained of.
‘We understood the intention of the tweet was to inform the audience of the starting line-up. However, we considered that of equal measure was its aim to offer the audience an opportunity to place a bet on the match.
‘In that context, while the significance of Harry Winks and Davison Sanchez was no greater than the other players in the line-up, the 11 players were the focus of the tweet, and we considered that each of them played an equally significant role in the marketing communication.’