LiveScore Bet is disappointed by the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) ruling published today.
Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers, and LiveScore Bet is committed to responsible advertising practices. Given its audience demographics, the selection of LiveScore as a media partner is within the ASA’s threshold for publishers of gambling adverts, and any exposure to gambling-related content was entirely unintentional.
Despite multiple waves of testing, the first ad (‘Ad A’) has still never been verified as accurate, and only the second ad (‘Ad B’) was proven to have been shown to a self-declared under-18 user because of an (at the time) unknown bug that was confined to a single app release and impacted only a small number of LiveScore users.
LiveScore Bet has nothing to gain from under-18s seeing our adverts, given that such an audience cannot use our products.
We would like to clarify the ASA’s description of the “under-18 version of the app”. LiveScore is one app that offers a tailored experience for both minors and adults out of a sense of social responsibility.
We believe it is important to also clarify that the age-gating screen is shown to all UK-based users on their first use of the LiveScore app and does not itself contain any advertising content.
Unlike many other sports media sites and news services, which display both live odds and gambling advertisements around their content to an audience including under-18s at all times, LiveScore’s implementation of an age-gating screen is an industry-leading, voluntary safeguard, which encourages under-18 users to remove adult-focused content (including gambling ads) from their LiveScore experience.
The age gate has been live and working as expected in the UK since November 2020, and we have received no other complaints about erroneous ads in relation to this previously.
The age-gating safeguard goes beyond regulatory requirements and reflects LiveScore Bet’s and LiveScore’s commitment to responsible advertising. We’re disappointed by this ruling following a technical bug in this safeguarding, when the safeguarding itself brings about a net positive benefit to the experience for LiveScore’s general user base, and is designed to align with the ASA’s principles on responsible advertising.
We feel it’s important to note that if LiveScore didn’t have age-gating in place, the complaint could not have been upheld.
Safeguards are used in good faith, and on rare occasion, malfunctions of those safeguards do not equate to disregarding the rules that make those safeguards required, which would understandably be a breach of the CAP Code.
Fans are at the heart of everything we do, and a user-centric approach is fundamental to every decision we make and the service we offer. We look forward to continuing to fuel their passion and enjoyment for sport.