William Hill has been criticised by the advertising regulator for using images including children and teddy bears to promote gambling.

The company launched a number of ads on Twitter to promote betting on events including the Masters golf tournament, and the sex of the second child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The betting firm used images including a child jumping in the air holding a golf club, and toured two large teddy bears around London on a flatbed truck wearing crowns.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint that the ads were likely to appeal to children and therefore irresponsible.

The ASA said that the UK advertising code banned images of children or young people being used to promote gambling. The regulator also said that the use of the teddy bears was likely to appeal to children and also broke the advertising code.

“The ads must not appear again in their current form,” said the ASA. “We told William Hill Betting not to use images of children or images that were likely to appeal to children or young people in future gambling ads”.