Bet365 Affiliates has emailed their webmasters a list of requirements to remain in compliance with the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom. Bet365 informs affiliates that failure to reply and comply will result in the termination of their affiliate account.
Important Information for bet365 Affiliates
As a leading gambling group and brand, bet365 is fully committed to ensuring its compliance with all applicable laws and regulations and maintaining its high level of customer protection and satisfaction.
All of bet365’s affiliates agree and are required to promote the bet365 brand in a socially responsible manner, in full compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, codes of practice and guidelines to ensure that any advertising of bet365 and its promotions is clear, transparent and not misleading.
As you will no doubt be aware, there have been several recent rulings by the Advertising Standards Authority and British Gambling Commission against operators for advertising published by affiliates in breach of the relevant advertising codes. In light of these rulings bet365 has considered its own affiliate programme.
Although bet365 considers that it is able to continue to manage a compliant affiliate programme, bet365 must stress that, as a responsible operator, it must take a zero tolerance approach to any breaches or failings by its affiliates in respect of advertising standards.
As part of your compliant promotion of bet365, you are reminded that:
• You must only use our approved advertising creative that is available at www.bet365affiliates.com (Affiliate Site) or other content specifically approved or provided by bet365 for your use. The creative (including the embedded links) has been produced in compliance with applicable advertising laws and standards and must not be amended or altered. bet365’s advertising creative and approved content link to specific pages of our website that contain the relevant terms and conditions or information. To ensure continued legal and regulatory compliance, it is essential that these links are not changed and that customers are not taken to alternative pages.
• If you wish to use text or other materials that are not within the Affiliate Site to describe, advertise or promote bet365 or any of its offers or services then you must obtain our approval prior to any publication of it.
• Any form of marketing spam or unsolicited direct marketing (including, without limitation, by email, telephone call, SMS or messaging) is strictly prohibited.
• Any direct marketing that includes reference to bet365 must only be sent to individuals over the age of 18 who have opted to receive such marketing from you (and have not subsequently opted out of receiving it). Any such marketing must be approved by bet365 prior to being distributed.
• Your websites and advertising must at all times uphold standards of best practice. They must promote responsible gambling and must contain 18+ and responsible gambling warning messages on any advert or page that refers to bet365.
• You must not advertise or cause bet365 to be advertised on any “unsuitable sites”. Unsuitable sites are described in clause 5.3 of the Terms and Conditions of our Affiliate Programme. You must therefore ensure that you are aware of the location of each bet365 advert that you cause to be placed prior to it being placed and that such sites are not “unsuitable”.
• Affiliates that provide tips as part of their services must do so in a responsible, fair and transparent manner. bet365 affiliates must not encourage individuals to repeatedly reinvest winnings as part of their tipping services and must not provide inaccurate or misleading information about their tips and the success of them.
• You must not market bet365 services in a manner which is in violation of any applicable law, regulation or code of practice. If you are in doubt regarding the compliance of a particular material then you must seek our prior approval before publishing it. The British Gambling Commission has produced a helpful summary page with links to relevant information for UK advertising that can be viewed here. We also strongly recommend that you obtain independent legal advice to ensure that all of your advertising is legally compliant.
In line with Facebook’s policy on gambling advertising, if you wish to advertise bet365 on Facebook then you must first obtain a Facebook Addendum signed on behalf of bet365. For all other forms of social media, you must obtain bet365’s prior written permission before advertising bet365 via that channel.
Media Buying to promote bet365 is strictly prohibited without the express prior written consent of bet365. “Media Buying” is deemed as being the placement of any content, in any form, on a website or other digital property that is not owned or operated by the affiliate.
bet365 shall continually review advertising by its affiliates to ensure continued compliance. Accordingly, you can only advertise bet365 on websites and through media accounts and channels that have been disclosed to and approved in advance by bet365. These websites, accounts and channels must be and remain accessible to bet365 at all times, including any member only areas (access to which must be provided to bet365 free of charge) to enable such reviews to be conducted. If you wish to amend your list of approved websites, media accounts and/or channels then you must contact bet365.
In accordance with the Terms and Conditions of our Affiliate Programme, the requirement for you to comply with the above is absolute. bet365 shall take any action that it deems appropriate, including the removal of commissions and/or the termination of your affiliate agreement should you fail to do so.
If you have any questions or queries in relation to your obligations under the Affiliate Programme Terms and Conditions then please let us know.
Please confirm that you have read and agree to comply with this communication, and provide a full list of your websites and media accounts and channels that you advertise and intend to advertise bet365 on for our approval. Please provide this confirmation and information by email to MarketingPartnerCompliance.Mailbox@bet365.com within 14 days of the date of this communication.
Yours Sincerely,
The bet365 Team
