FANTASTIC ASA post VITAL SPARK

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Vital Spark posted the ASA code of conduct up in the BF thread. I decided to use it to make my own complaint ...Again! I will be posting it tomorrow the 23rd Jan.
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Dear Sir. (ASA)

I wish to make a complaint about Racing Tipsters. Especially 090 PRS tipping lines. The highest profile of these is a much respected TV celebrity by the name of Derek Thompson. He currently runs three 090 tipping lines and also a subscription service I believe. All his 090 lines return huge long term losses. And I mean HUGE! And can be proven....It is the denial of sharing the losses with his clients in his adverts that prompts me to write this letter. In other words he sells his service on the strength of ‘winner only’ adverts ...Losers are never shown.... I believe that he sells his product via misleading advertising...The customer is denied the whole truth about the success or failure of the service. Misleading by omission.

Below I have listed ASA code of practice guidelines that I believe have been and are being violated
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ASA guideline 2.2... Key points for media ad departments
Publishers should check that marketers have “proofed” forecasts with an independent third party before marketing that they have tipped particular winners or achieved a certain level of profit (see 5.1)

For a long time (probably years) one of Derek Thompson’s 090 advert, carried very tiny wordage....With the aid of a magnifying glass it said....”Proofed to the Trinity Mirror Group”.....I believe that TMG allows Derek Thompson and other 090 tipping services to place their adverts in The Racing Post for free. It is a cozy relationship whereby the tipster places his advert and the newspaper proof the advert...The newspaper then take their cut of the tipsters 090 revenue. Hardly an independent Party!.....After I brought that point to light in my much viewed blog relating to scam racing tipsters, the wordage “proofed by The Mirror Trinity group” disappeared. I wonder why!
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ASA guideline 2.3 ... Key points for media departments
Publishers who “proof” their marketers’ forecasts for them (as in “ a good thing running at HQ today...make sure you are on” should be able to provide documentary evidence that the forecasts were lodged with them in advance and that their systems for recording such forecasts have been approved and regularly monitored by an independent third party (see 5.2)

As in “Flying machine”...” Be on with me today”...”Don’t miss out”....”Ring now”
I would like to know how the consumer of 090 tipping services can find such “third party” confirmations....As a consumer is he not entitled. Bearing in mind that the tipster does everything he can to withhold such information from the consumer
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ASA Guideline ...2.4 Key points for media departments
Publishers should check that marketers have not claimed that their forecasts
are very likely or certain to win or their service is very likely or certain to turn aprofit (see 6.1)

Derek Thompson adverts say things like ......”flying machine. Be on today” “Don’t miss out“...”This horse has been laid out for this race”....”Good thing today”...he also says .”etc etc”....”and many many more” ..... The ‘etc etc’ and ’many many more’ are particularly offensive and he continually uses those expressions to make the consumer think that he has had so many winners he has not got the space in his advert to list them....He’s been doing it for years....The reality of such boastful expressions as “etc etc” is that he has tipped many worthless winners. He is on written record ‘The Guardian’ as saying “you should never back odds on” Yet he tips thousands of them, and most of them lose Odds on winners return LESS than the stake money invested......I would ask. Are not such advertorial boasts “etc etc” about the likely success of his service as shown in his winner only adverts, not an indication the horse and the customer “are very likely to win?”

ASA guideline 2.6 .... Key points for media departments
Publishers should check that marketers who make claims about their track
record have not exaggerated their success, have stated clearly both the relevant period of forecasting and the “bank” and have either based their forecasts on starting prices or have stated the basis for any earlier prices (see 7))

Derek Thompson and others 090 tipsters, brag about horses that won weeks ago....In the game , its called stretching....I recently wrote in my blog about Thompson stretching a horse for 4 weeks ....... He tipped a 12-1 winner on the 2nd December .....and advertised it nearly every day through-out December....He finally stopped advertising it on the 4th January, 4 weeks AFTER he first bragged about it......That surely is unfair and misleading information to Thompson’s unknowing customers......(.Misleading exaggeration and trickery by stretching of long gone success)..... Is not the customer entitled to know that the 12-1 winner was 4 weeks ago?.....Thompson’s results throughout the month of December to just a small £5 stake were appalling...Massive losses.....They were even worse in November.....I have them all on record if required.......Because he could not boast in his advert of later successes, he boasted nearly every day about the winner he had on the 2nd December and carried on doing so throughout the whole month of December ........ He last boasted about his 12-1 winner on the 4th January 2009...exactly 4 weeks after his first boastful advert. ....

You mention the tipsters betting Bank ..... .No tipster has ever in The Racing Post shown a betting bank .....If they did, the customers would see in an instant the tipsters performance figures....The very last thing a tipster wants to show his ‘victim’ is his betting bank!.....Were the rules changed compelling tipsters to show a bank of their COMPLETE, profit and loss figures, the problem would be solved at a stroke......Tipsters get very very rich on the proceeds of their customers being denied from seeing their ‘banks’ and TRUE results. And the customer always loses in the long term....fact

As to your reference about publishers. It is the Racing Post (the publisher) that checks his claims, as I have shown above. It is my belief that the publisher does not charge the main 090 tipping services in their paper.....The tipster places his advert for free and the Racing Post take a slice of the revenue....It’s called an advertorial.......In other words the tipster gets a free ride and the Racing Post cash in.... And you say that it should be the Racing Post (the publisher) that check Thompson’s. track record. But do not The Racing Post (The Trinity Mirror Group) check the advert of the 090 tipster whose profits they share? Thompsn’s tips are proofed by The Trinity Mirror Group who own the Racing Post.....A very cozy relationship I feel.

Is not the customer entitled to check or see the tipster’s claims?...Is not the customer entitled to see the tipster’s track record?.....Is not the customer entitled to see the tipsters tipping bank?..... Has not the customer the right to see the tipsters losers as well as the force feeding by the tipster of his winner’s only adverts?.......Has the customer no entitlement as to the RELEVENT information other than that of being shown only winners?.....False pretences!!!!

I apologies at this stage for the length of my reply....But it is relevant....Had I not told you of the 12-1 4 week stretch, you would never have known...... But all Thompson’s customers knew.....But they never complain much......They only lost a few quid after all......It ‘aint worth complaining about is it......And that sir, is the strength of the 090 trick tipster.....Nobody complains and makes a fuss about losing a few quid do they!
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3.2 The law and the code
Marketers offering services via a premium rate telephone line must conform to
the latest edition of the ICSTIS Code of Practice and are urged to consult the
ICSTIS Guideline on Betting Tipster Services (Guideline No. 15);
Given the examples that I have shown in this letter of what I believe to be
malpractice tipping by Derek Thompson, and the fact that he has violated the ICSTIS(PhonepayPlus) code of conduct,is he not breaking the law?
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ASA guideline 3.3 ... The law and the code
“Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication,
marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied, that are capable of objective substantiation” (clause 3.1); and “No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise” (clause 7.1).

I believe tipping services that advertise ‘winners only’ are misleading the reader/customer. They mislead the customer with intent by omitting to show their customers losers. In the last 20 years I have seen tipsters boasting tens of thousands of winners, but not one single loser. The customer responds to the advert on the strength of a few winners unaware that the tipster has just had 100 losers.....I believe that to be misleading. The service may not be inaccurate in naming the odd winner or two, but in my view it is certainly immoral, dishonest, indecent and misleading...It also deceives.
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ASA guideline 5.1 ... Proofing forecasts
Marketers must be able to substantiate claims that they have tipped particular winners or achieved a certain level of profit. To do this, they should “proof” forecasts, i.e. lodge all forecasts with an independent third party before the events to which they refer take place;

How can the consumer check that the tipster has ‘substantiated his claims when there is no instruction or help to assist him in that direction. One would have thought that of all people that should have access to substantiated claims and profit levels, it is the customer.....Again how can the consumer find if the tipster has proofed his tips to a third party? Has the consumer no right to confirm for himself the above regulations have not been breeched?
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ASA guideline 6.1 .... Exaggerated success claims
Marketers should not claim that their forecasts are very likely or certain to winor that their service is very likely or certain to turn a profit.

The very fact that the tipster only markets success in his adverts by only displaying winners to the customer (his advert never mentions losers) must suggest to the customer that he will make a profit if he pays the tipster for his tips. The force feeding of ‘winners only’ could make the customer feel he himself is on a winner. And it does. Is that not a trick of confidence?
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ASA guideline 7.1 .... Track record claims
Marketers who make claims about their track record (e.g. by quoting
aggregate profit figures) must state clearly the relevant period of forecasting
and the total amount of money (the “bank”) needed to place stakes on the
forecasts;

In 20 years I have never seen an 090 tipping service show their track record or show a bank....WHY?....And the answer is so obvious....If they had a track record that show a profitable bank....THEY WOULD SHOW IT IN THEIR ADVERT!
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ASA guideline7.2 ...Track record claims
Marketers should not refer to successful periods in a way that wrongly impliesthey are successful in other periods, or are generally successful

Almost all tipsters refer to successful past result periods (Up to 4 weeks as I clearly illustrated with Derek Thompson. Almost none of them are successful, but they all do it....That is one of the biggest complaints made against tipster by the people who want them to show their tipping records for the month in their advert instead of hiding them. The absence of any monthly record of success proves they all make a loss otherwise they would all be boasting about profitable stats and not just the odd winner from 4 weeks ago.
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ASA guideline 7.3 ... Track record claims
Marketers who make claims about their track record are urged to base their
claims on starting prices (NB. the ICSTIS Code of Practice that applies to
marketers using premium rate services states that “aggregate profit figures
may only be calculated using starting prices and the total stake on which the
profit is based must be stated”);

“AGGREGATE PROFIT FIGURES”....That is the whole problem with ALL tipsters.......You will never find in an advert, least of all 090services, a tipster showing “aggregate profit figures”... If you did, ALL problems with racing tipsters would disappear at a stroke.....The last thing tipsters want their customers to see is their aggregate LOSS figures”...The question to be asked is..... WHY? .....You will never see tipsters make track record claims because they never show track records for their customers to see....Instead they just pick and play with their odd winner or two from 4 weeks ago! Proven

With respect sir I would ask that my complaint be given serious consideration...It is after all a very serious complaint....Further information can be sullied if required

Sincerely Gerry Attric!