ASA tells Ladbrokes to end LadBucks campaign due to similarity to Fortnite and Roblox rewards
The Advertising Standards Association has told Ladbrokes that its LadBucks rewards breached advertising standards because it could appeal to under-18s due to the similarity to the in-game currencies of ‘V-bucks’ from Fortnite and ‘Robux’ from Roblox and the large number of minors who play video games.
The TV ad, seen on 17 December 2024, featured a voice-over that stating: “This is a Ladbuck, the new way to get rewarded at Ladbrokes, and these are some of the 100 million Ladbucks that will be dropping weekly. Collect them on our free to play games and choose rewards like free spins, free bets and more. Over 100 million Ladbucks dropping every single week. Plus you can even use them to play your favourite games for free in our Ladbucks arcade. Like Fishin Frenzy and Goldstrike. Start collecting at Ladbrokes.com.”
The ad featured imagery of coins that displayed the initials ‘Lb’, as well as text that stated “100m LADBUCKS”, FREE BETS” and “FREE SPINS”.
The other issue for the Agency was the use of the term ‘lad’, which, while part of Ladbrokes’ name, is typically associated with younger men, including teenaged men/youth.
In a statement upholding the complaints, the ASA commented: “We concluded the name Ladbucks, when considered alongside the imagery and the application of the coin in the ads, was depicted in a manner which was similar to features in video games popular with children. We therefore considered the term in the ads was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s and breached the Code.”
“We considered a significant number of under-18s were likely to be familiar with those games and their specific features, which included reward schemes that involved earning and using coins in associated game stores. For those reasons, we considered both games and their associated features were strongly associated with youth culture.”
Ladbrokes said the ad promoted ‘Ladbucks’, which was their rewards programme. Ladbucks were tokens, depicted as coins, that consumers collected for free by participating in selected promotions, which were then used to redeem offers within the ‘Ladbucks Store’ or the ‘Ladbucks arcade’. They could only be used by logged-in, verified over-18 consumers. They stated tokens could not be purchased, had no monetary value and expired if not used. They explained that Ladbucks did not have a general market value with an exchange rate, and they could not be universally used across all products on the Ladbrokes site. They said each eligible product or offer had a set value, which was in contrast to in-game currency products.
Ladbrokes said that, in the context of their rewards programme, the term Ladbucks was chosen as a play on the word Ladbrokes, and because it referenced, through the use of the term bucks, that it had value on the Ladbrokes website. They believed the term ‘bucks’ was known as a colloquialism for dollars and was widely used to refer to money or a unit of currency in many contexts, which included video games. They said that the word had no origins in youth culture and believed that it was not of inherent strong appeal to under-18s. They highlighted that both ads had targeting restrictions to reduce the likelihood of children viewing them.
Ladbrokes believed that the term was not associated with any coins from videogames which were popular with under-18s. They said that ‘V-bucks’ from Fortnite and ‘Robux’ from Roblox were in-game currencies that had to be purchased before being used to buy in-game items. They also said that certain elements of Robux required parental consent and, for subscription services, the purchaser must be over 18. Therefore, the only similarity between those coins and Ladbucks coins was the term bucks. They had reviewed the rewards programme in its entirety and believed there was no risk of the term being associated with Fortnite or Roblox.
Felix Faulkner, solicitor at licensing law firm Poppleston Allen, commented: “While it is understandable that a brand called Ladbrokes might produce an in-play betting reward token with the term ‘lad’ in it, it is of utmost importance for all licence holders to sense-check a number of things before running a promotion: Further, operators must be reminded that the threshold for gambling advertisements under the ASA Cap Code is “likely to strongly appeal to children or young persons…”.
“It is evident from the Ladbrokes decision that the ASA believed the close link to Fortnite and Roblox pushed this proposal over the line, and the argued mitigation from Ladbrokes was not enough to defend the case.”
