The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against Optival Ltd, which operates under the brand bestbookiesandbettingsites.co.uk, due to concerns that one of its paid search ads irresponsibly targeted individuals seeking information on self-exclusion from gambling.
The ruling, issued on Wednesday, focuses on an advertisement that appeared on August 10, 2026, in response to user searches for "self-exclusion bookies." The phrase indicated a user potentially looking to limit or stop gambling, highlighting a vulnerability related to problem gambling.
The ads promoted the "Top 15 Betting Sites UK" along with offers like "Exclusive First Bet Bonus" and other "Best Welcome Bonus Offers by UK’s Top Online Sports Betting Brands for 2025." While Optival Ltd acts as an affiliate comparison platform directing users to bookmakers instead of taking bets directly, the ASA determined that the ad promoted online betting services linked to users trying to self-exclude.
In its investigation, the ASA highlighted the importance for advertisers of gambling-related products to exercise extra caution and avoid delivering promotional content to vulnerable individuals. It concluded that showing such ads to users looking for self-exclusion information posed a serious risk.
In defense, Optival Ltd argued that they did not deliberately target the specific phrase “self-exclusion bookies.” They provided Google Ads search term reports indicating no direct matches for that term and noted they employed negative keyword lists designed to prevent ads from appearing for searches involving self-exclusion, GamStop, and related terms. The company suggested that automated ad platform query matching, which uses machine learning to infer user intent, led to this incident, describing it as an isolated occurrence. They committed to enhancing their exclusion criteria to stop similar situations in the future.
Despite these claims, the ASA deemed the advertiser’s current controls inadequate. It also recognized the "strong likelihood" that vulnerable consumers had unintentionally received the promotional content, breaching the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) Edition 12, rule 1.3, regarding social responsibility in advertising.
As a result, the ASA instructed Optival Ltd to ensure that the problematic advertisement does not reappear in response to the query “self-exclusion bookies” or similar searches. Furthermore, they required Optival to demonstrate improved targeting measures for its gambling-related advertisements.
In the UK, self-exclusion—the practice of allowing individuals to block themselves from gambling services—has seen a rise in participation. By the end of 2025, there were 562,000 registered users of the self-exclusion service, which offers various options for the duration of self-exclusion.
Licensed operators in the UK are required to have a self-exclusion protocol. Recently, Holland Park Leisure Limited, which runs three adult gaming centers, was fined £150,000 ($202,888) by the Gambling Commission for failing to comply with the mandatory multi-operator self-exclusion scheme.
