Tweets from bookmaker Betfred that featured boxing heavyweight Anthony Joshua have been banned by the advertising watchdog.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found three tweets broke gambling ad rules due to the boxer’s strong appeal to under-18s. The first of the three posts, which were seen in March and April, promoted a fight for the boxer.
It featured him being interviewed by commentator Dom McGuinness where he discussed his diet ahead of his bout against Jermaine Franklin. Text stated: “How does @anthonyjoshua stay in shape? A diet consisting of bananas with rice & ketchup with sweetcorn. How does @ant_crolla stay in shape? Guinness.”
The second tweet featured a video of Joshua being interviewed about how he prepares for fights, while the third included excerpts from an interview about his mentality when fighting.
The ruling forms part of wider work by the ASA banning gambling ads which, under strengthened rules, are prohibited for being likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. They were identified for investigation with the use of AI to search for online ads that might break the rules.
Betfred acknowledged that Joshua is “undoubtedly a star in the sport of boxing”. However, it said he is reaching the end of his career and, therefore, the ads posed a low risk of appealing to children.
Social media data showed that none of Joshua’s followers on X, Facebook or TikTok were registered as being between 13 and 17. While 5% of his Snapchat followers and 6.6% of his Instagram following were in the age bracket.
Overall, the company said, he has 29.3 million followers worldwide, which it acknowledged means he has a substantial social media presence, with 1.1 million users registered as being under 18. He has 7.2 million followers in total in the UK and, assuming age breakdowns in the UK mirror worldwide figures, Betfred believes approximately 280,000 of Joshua’s UK followers are under 18.
It acknowledged that the total number excludes Snapchat, for which it did not have UK specific data. The ASA noted that Joshua is a 33-year-old former world champion boxer who is considered a high-profile “star” in the sport.
It said: “Although they made up a small proportion of his total followers, we considered that over 1.1 million followers aged under 18 was a significant number in absolute terms. We therefore considered that, because he had such large numbers of social media followers who were under 18, Mr Joshua was of inherent strong appeal to under-18s.”
The ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in their current form, adding: “We told Betfred not to include a person or character who had strong appeal to those under 18 years of age in their advertising in future.”
Betfred said it will be seeking an independent review of “this unjust decision”. A spokesman said: “Betfred is committed to ensuring that our marketing does not have a strong appeal to under-18s, and we are firmly of the view that the posting of these interviews with Anthony Joshua in no way undermined that commitment.
“It should also be remembered that the ASA did not receive a single complaint from a member of the public about our association with Anthony Joshua in this respect.”
