Games on the Toilet and a Mother with a Baby: How TonyBet Hit Rock Bottom in Betting Advertising

Games on the Toilet and a Mother with a Baby: How TonyBet Hit Rock Bottom in Betting Advertising

The well-known bookmaker TonyBet found itself at the center of a high-profile controversy. The cause was a series of highly questionable marketing creatives that caught the attention of Ireland’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). In just two months, the regulator firmly banned two of the company’s promotional videos on YouTube for violating ethical standards.

The advertising videos featured openly provocative content:

“The Toilet Investor”:

In the first video, viewers were shown a man sitting on a toilet, staring at his smartphone. The visuals were accompanied by an absurd call to action: the creators claimed that only 3% of people are capable of this and suggested “making money while sitting on the toilet.”

“The Successful Mother”:

The second creative targeted a vulnerable audience. A woman holding a small child appeared on screen, complaining about a lack of money. The tragic story was instantly followed by a caption stating that over the past month she had miraculously “earned $8,500.”

Representatives of the Irish regulator delivered an unequivocal verdict: such marketing is unacceptable. Broadcasting messages like these creates a false and extremely dangerous belief among viewers that sports betting is an easy, guaranteed, and fast way to solve any financial problems. The ASA demanded that the videos be removed from circulation immediately.

TonyBet’s management was quick to distance itself from the scandal. In an official statement, the bookmaker shifted the blame to a third-party affiliate partner who allegedly launched the videos without authorization. The fact that such outrageous materials made it to air was explained by the company as a simple case of “high workload” among its in-house staff.