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Sarah MacDonald

Matthew Plampton

March 13, 2026

Part of our series on ASA rulings relating to children’s appeal in gambling marketing

Also in October 2025, the ASA upheld a complaint against Kwiff over an X post featuring Sir Lewis Hamilton with linked odds and direct click‑through to the operator’s site, which was released just ahead of the British Grand Prix. The ruling demonstrates the ASA’s “cumulative indicators” approach to strong appeal to under-18s, and it shows the weight the ASA gives to a number of factors, including:

  • absolute numbers of followers (i.e., the total count of under-18 followers rather than merely a percentage assessment) who are under 18; and
  • the media exposure of the celebrity across other platforms.

This ruling again confirmed that advertisers cannot rely on a platform that permits self-verification of age to have “robust” age verification (and this type of targeting will not provide an exemption to an ad whose content is of ‘strong’ appeal.

While F1 may be viewed as a relatively adult‑orientated sport, the ASA catalogued a series of under-18‑appeal signals for Sir Lewis Hamilton. These included:

  • an estimated 150,000 UK under‑18 followers on Instagram alone;
  • appearances connected to 3+ age‑rated games (F1 24) and 16+ esports;
  • child‑sized merchandise and toys; and
  • a CBeebies Bedtime Story appearance.

It treated the aggregated picture – plus the Grand Prix tie‑in – as sufficient to render the ad of strong appeal to under‑18s (and the X platform’s lack of robust assurance, providing no exemption).

Operators should consider:

  1. the ASA’s emphasis on absolute follower numbers means that even a small percentage of a very large following can be determinative if the under‑18 tally is “significant in absolute terms”. This aligns with the updated Guidance, in which 100,000 under-18 followers were marked as the number in which strong appeal would be considered a high risk; and
  2. timing around marquee events and the presence of youth‑orientated touchpoints (including games, merchandise, family programming) are considered by the ASA to be amplifiers of youth appeal.

Next in this series:

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