ASA Clears Fitzdares Over Broad Gambling Ad
A gambling advertisement featuring the former England cricket star Stuart Broad has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
The ASA has cleared Fitzdares and Stuart Broad over a betting ad. © Alessandro Bogliari, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- Broad is one of England’s best-known cricketers of the era
- Last year, Broad announced a partnership with bookmaker Fitzdares
- A complaint said Broad could appeal to under-18s, which would result in the ad breaching guidelines
- But the ASA has concluded its investigation and found no wrongdoing from the former cricketer
Broad announced a partnership with Fitzdares on social media last year.
He said the bookmaker would be giving him a £500 free bet pot every month to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease.
GambleAware made a complaint over the advertisement, claiming it could have an appeal to minors and was, therefore, in breach of regulations.
However, the ASA has now concluded its investigation into the matter and found this was not the case, clearing Broad and Fitzdares over the issue.
Pundit Work
In its defence, Fitzdares argued Broad had limited appeal to under-18s due to his retirement from professional sport.
Broad, who had captained the England team during a glittering career as a fast bowler, now works primarily as a pundit and has a family with the former Saturdays pop star Mollie King.
Fitzdares provided an analysis of Broad’s social media accounts, finding that 7,500 of his social media followers were registered as being under 18 and in the UK.
The bookmaker pointed out that Broad did not have a public TikTok or Snapchat account, with those apps being primarily used by younger people.
Broad was shown to have 1.3m followers on X – the social media site formerly known as Twitter – with just 76 of those being registered as under 18 and in the UK.
Many of Broad’s social media followers were found to be based in India, which is thought to be due to that country’s large fanbase of cricket lovers.
No Strong Media Presence
In its ruling, the ASA pointed out Broad does not have a particularly strong presence in the media, though he has appeared on TV shows such as A League of Their Own in 2023.
The ASA said most of his media appearances focused on his cricketing career and were aimed at adults rather than at under-18s who cannot legally bet in the UK.
As well as having no Snapchat or TikTok public profiles, the ASA accepted that Broad’s official Facebook page and YouTube account had been dormant for years.
The ASA’s ruling said: “Given his low absolute numbers of under-18 UK social media followers, in combination with his limited media profile and because he had retired from playing cricket, we considered Stuart Broad was not likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s.”
“Lastly, we considered that there was nothing in the way Stuart Broad was presented in the ad that would have strongly attracted the attention of under-18s or was likely to render him of strong appeal.”
The ASA concluded that Broad’s social media post promoting Fitzdares was not “of strong appeal to people aged under 18” as a result and closed its investigation.
