Betting with Bookie is an ongoing educational series designed to demystify the betting experience. Each article will tackle sports betting terminology and concepts in a simple way, in an effort to make you a better bettor.
With odds constantly shifting accordingly with score changes and other match conditions, there’s no denying that in-play betting opened a lot of doors for bettors. Providing the opportunity to make or reverse a bet after the match has started no doubt saved a lot of heartache and money for some. But it isn’t without flaws. Bettors soon discovered an edge that some consider shady or even illicit, related to how quickly they can acquire knowledge of changing match conditions relative to other bettors.
Enter, Courtsiders.
Courtsiding is the act of transmitting real-time scores and match conditions to online bettors or systems, allowing a significant advantage before anyone else gets that same information. Not straying far from its name, Courtsiders are quite literally courtside, using their proximity to changing match conditions to give themselves (and their associates) a decided edge when it comes to in-play betting.
It’s easy to see the connection between quickly relaying this type of information to gain an upper hand. Perhaps the best example is in Tennis, where Courtsiding is most prevalent. If the #31 ranked player at an event (sometimes referred to as the 31 seed) just won a surprising set against the #2 ranked player (2 seed), their respective odds of winning the match are about to change drastically! Courtsiding gives bettors an advantage, measured in seconds, that allows the Courtsider to make more informed decisions when placing their in-play bets.
A suddenly-changing score is a major catalyst that can decide a match’s outcome, but it’s not the only factor at play. In the above tennis match, that same 2 seed can have a commanding lead the entire match and be well on their way to victory (and the odds will show it!). But one slip, an actual slip that causes injury, could derail their chances to win and ultimately result in withdrawing from the match (ceding defeat). Imagine being the first person to have this information - that the 31st best player, well behind in the match, is about to emerge victorious against the second best player - before any other bettor. The odds would be astronomically in your favor to profit.
All major sporting events are aired live on television, along with many non-major events nowadays, but there’s a small time delay between the events unfolding in the match and those events being screened on live television. This is how Courtsiders first found their edge and succeeded in the past.
Key word: past.
Though technically not illegal in most jurisdictions, Courtsiding is understandably frowned upon by governing bodies and tournament authorities who - in their words - wish to protect the integrity of the game. At a recent U.S. Open, one of the four tournaments on the Association of Tennis Professionals’ schedule that is considered a “Major” event, a man was arrested on-site for transmitting live results. How did officials know who he was and what he was doing? He was caught Courtsiding the year before and they recognized him. This is how most Courtsiders are caught.
Just as quickly as Courtsiding became popular, it became outlawed. Where you once might’ve seen several Courtsiders at any given event, you now see spectators being escorted from stadiums by the dozen. If you’re thinking about becoming a Courtsider, it could be a lucrative proposition in the short-term, but you may want to think twice. Being banned from an event might not be a harsh enough penalty to sway you, but being arrested just might do the trick.
It puts a whole new spin on risk vs. reward.
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This is all appropriate, reminds one of the Sting (the movie) don't it? Isn't that the one where they sold the suckers on a 0.6 second time advantage on Asian stock prices or something? Or maybe that was from a more modern grift movie?
Our bookie typically allows bets at pauses in the game, and this seems pretty common.
Tennis is cracking down, bc Tennis was caught red-handed paying off players to shave points or lose matches outright. There's a great article on this, and the proof is all there beyond a shadow of a doubt. it was hushed-up by the league tho, they didn't want the bad promotion for their sport, shame on them.
Those Airpods are a sure warning sign these days, eh?
What does Bookie plan on doing tho, not real clear on that.
Hi @tenhanger, not sure what movie had the stock exchange time advantage, but The Sting did involve a horse race!
What you describe sounds about right, as it provides just enough time to assess and assign new in-play odds. With online betting, a similar delay is also common, to avoid the effects of courtsiding.
Could you link to that article on Tennis? Sounds like an interesting read.
AirPods (or similar) could surely be a warning sign especially if culrprits are previously known and already under suspicion. You have to be careful though, as the individual could be listening to the broadcast on headphones - although this practice is much more common in a sport like baseball.
Markets on Bookie will be unmanaged. In other words, no freezing of markets for significant in-game events (scores, ejections, etc) or for intervals (half-time, between periods/quarters, etc). So when the game turns live, betting stays open until the game ends.
Really not sure this is the article we read, but there's certainly been a lot written about this topic, and frankly since everyone in sports doesn't know it like they know the Louisville scandal, Pro Tennis did a pretty good job in hushing it all up...
https://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/heres-the-evidence-of-worldwide-match-fixing-prosecutors-say?utm_term=.eb8N310r1a#.pyd0Y89k86
Didn't read/reread this article, but if this one doesn't quote the texts directly, which were obtained by the authorities, find an article that has the quoted texts (from players to riggers etc...). The evidence is indisputable to anyone who can see past a 1st-graders level of lying.
And obviously there's "motive" to cover it all up, by the league, the players, etc...
What we should all take from this, is that sports IS in fact rigged, but only infrenquently does anyone get caught. Did Michael Jordan REALLY quit for 2 years bc he wanted to play baseball? Or did some secret-squirrel shit happen in back rooms, where the "league" was trying to prevent a Pete Rose-fiasco for their most marketable product, but still needed to deliver SOME kind of punishment for Jordan's "gambling addiction" (which may or may not have involved affecting his own games as a player) via a secret 2-year suspension. We're just supposing here, "only the Shadow knows" if this actually happened or is an old wives tale. But Tennis and the Black Sox, those are real, confirmed, and right there for anyone betting on sports to understand.
btw, there is nothing for the "bookie" to do in these fixings, but our point is a GOOD and FAIR bookie would take every precaution to eliminate gaming of it's system by those who don't know anything about the topic on which they are betting. Wall Street does a TERRIBLE job at this, as HFTs are allowed to basically steal information from those doing real research, simply by positioning their servers closer to the stock market's servers and then running ahead of the bids/asks they see coming from REAL market participants. This has a VERY bad effect on the world, as it steals money from those doing good, and rewards bad behavior simply based on proximity. But alas, those who rely on cheaty-methods typically resort to payoffs to the exchanges in question, and if the exchange righteously refuses, a competitor will say yes and get bigger. So perhaps like trying to prevent prostitution, there's no way to really "win" or beat it. Just minimize it.
We can't speak for the other industries you mention here, but Bookie is built to provide Provably Fair Betting - real-time transparency of all transactions, along with open source cod, and resilient, decentralized governance structures that will change the way the betting industry works... we hope!
Thanks for sharing the article. Interesting theory about MJ, though not sure it's one I share. There are clearly proven examples of match-fixing throughout the history of sports, and tennis has a particularly bad recent reputation. I think we've seen that some sports - like Roger Goodell's NFL - try to dictate the conversation, but I would stop short of saying that they are systematically rigged. Appreciate your thoughts, though.