ASA rules affiliate's betting ad shown to users searching for self-exclusion help was irresponsible

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Optival Ltd, which trades as bestbookiesandbettingsites.co.uk, over a paid search advertisement that it judged to have been irresponsibly targeted. The ad was shown on 10 August 2026 in response to the search query "self-exclusion bookies".

The regulator said that phrase suggested the user was probably trying to limit or stop gambling, which pointed to possible vulnerability linked to problem gambling. The advertisement promoted a list of the "Top 15 Betting Sites UK" and referred to first bet bonuses and welcome offers from leading online sports betting brands. Optival is an affiliate comparison site that sends users to bookmakers instead of accepting bets itself, but the ASA concluded that the ad nonetheless promoted online betting services.

Optival told the regulator that it had not deliberately targeted the phrase. It supplied Google Ads search term reports showing no direct matches and said it kept negative keyword lists to block ads for searches involving self-exclusion, GamStop and other problem gambling terms. The company put the incident down to automated query matching on the ad platform, which uses machine learning to interpret user intent, and said the case fell below reporting thresholds and was isolated. It also committed to widening its exclusion criteria.

The ASA was not persuaded. It ruled that the controls in place at the time were not sufficiently robust and that there was a "strong likelihood" that vulnerable consumers had been unintentionally targeted. The ad was found to breach rule 1.3 of the CAP Code, Edition 12, which covers social responsibility in advertising.

The regulator ordered Optival to ensure the ad is not shown again in response to the term "self-exclusion bookies" or similar queries. It also required the company to demonstrate improved targeting safeguards for its gambling-related search advertising.

The ruling comes as self-exclusion use grows in Britain. By the end of 2025, 562,000 players had registered with the national scheme. Licensed UK operators must have a self-exclusion arrangement in place. In August, the Gambling Commission fined Holland Park Leisure Limited, which operates three adult gaming centres, £150,000 for failing to join the mandatory multi-operator self-exclusion scheme.