Arsenal FC has had several NFT promotions banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for not attaching high-risk warnings with regard to the volatility of the tokens.
Purchasing the club’s NFTs gives fans access to exclusive experiences, club-related content, games and digital communities.
The watchdog has asked Arsenal FC to remove promotions that do not clearly state that the value of investments in paid-for Fan Tokens are variable and thoat crypto assets are unregulated.
The news comes as a result of an independent review requested by the club further to initial rulings made in December last year. Ultimately the ASA upheld its stance on the complaints.
Susannah Steer, senior investment and market analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown, believes the club has “left many hopeful fans in the stands clutching NFTs with hefty losses.”
NFTs have been described as ‘modern day trading cards’, and are seen as valuable streams of fresh revenue for football clubs, and for soccer stars who have been promoting other schemes.
Earlier this year Michael Owen deleted a tweet that promoted a NFT after being contacted by the advertising watchdog.
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“ASA officials are faced with the task of running the line, assessing every complaint against companies, but with scant other regulation governing crypto assets, and so many flags springing up it’s becoming an increasingly difficult play to monitor,” Steer added.
This is not the first time Arsenal FC has had one of its crypto promotions censured by the ASA.
“Late last year it banned the club’s posts on Facebook and its website which promoted ‘fan’ tokens as they took advantage of consumers’ inexperience in crypto assets and misled consumers by not making it clear that these NFTs had to be bought using another cryptocurrency,” the financial market analyst added.
“This ruling is another stark reminder that people should resist ploughing money into schemes they don’t fully understand and should only speculate with money they can afford to lose. It also highlights the need to speed up the plan to give the city watchdog – the Financial Conduct Authority more powers to regulate the crypto industry, given the government’s vision to make the UK a crypto hub.”
Despite some crypto assets rising in recent weeks, Bitcoin and Ether are still down by around 65% since the heights they both reached in November last year.
Steer concluded: “NFTs continue to be churned out across the sport, art and music worlds.”
“A token may appear to be set for a winning streak – but after the initial frenzy of interest, NFTs could end up being almost worthless.”
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