By Tom Wilson
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s advertising watchdog rebuked soccer club Arsenal on Wednesday over website and Facebook ads of its “fan tokens,” a type of cryptocurrency that has exploded in popularity this year.
The Advertising Standards Agency said two ads posted by Arsenal in August were “misleading” as they failed to make clear the risk of the trading cryptocurrencies, the potential tax implications, or that such tokens are unregulated in Britain.
Fan tokens allow supporters to vote on a variety of minor decisions related to football and other sports clubs, such as the song played at matches after a goal is scored or images used on social media.
The ASA said Arsenal’s ads were “irresponsible because they took advantage of consumers’ inexperience or credulity and trivialised investment in cryptoassets.”
(Reporting by Tom Wilson; editing by Marc Jones)
