What is courtsiding
Courtsiding is the practice of placing a bet directly from a sporting event or by transmitting information via other means to a partner that places the bets quickly on a betting platform. By doing this, you can take advantage of the delay/latency of the data transmission or a slow-moving umpire. With this technique you can easily beat sportsbooks or the markets on exchanges by placing bets before the in-play odds update or by entering trades before the market reacts.
Courtsiding is mostly done in tennis but it can be done in a very high number of sports, the basic rule is that a sport should have a high number of points per game (like basketball, volleyball)
Courtsiding back in the day
When I first started doing courtsiding, it was fairly easy, you could just go to a tennis tournament with your laptop and place the bets, no one would ask you anything. Many people were traveling around the world to tennis tournaments and bookmakers were bleeding because they did not understand what is happening.
In 2012-2013 things started to deteriorate, tennis tournament officials caught on they started implementing bans on laptops in the venue and started to monitor spectators. Courtsiding became harder but also technology improved so people who did this full-time would still be able to do this using different techniques like phones or Bluetooth devices. But while everyone was looking at tennis tournaments for courtsiders, they were not paying attention to other sports. There was a year when we started to go to hockey matches where there were no rules on courtsiding. We could stay with the laptop in our lap and place bets on markets like next goal and it was a great success.
Contemporary Courtsiding
It is far harder to do courtsiding today, firstly now if you get caught at a tennis tournament and get banned, your picture will be provided to all other tournaments and at higher level competitions they use facial recognition to spot courtsiders. In 2015, at Wimbledon, it was the first time I saw this happening, a friend of mine just entered the venue and in 15 - 30 minutes security came and kicked him out. He didn’t even attend any tennis match, but he was already in their database.
Courtsiders face tougher times but is this still doable? Now the laptop is replaced with a smartphone with custom apps that let the spectator just click when a point is scored and the data is transmitted to someone who places the bets, I even saw shoes made for courtsiding, one tap to transmit. Everyone is paying attention to tennis, but other sports are the hidden gems for courtsiders.
Is it legal?
While you may be breaking the tournaments rules in most countries you will just get banned from the venue and in the case of tennis your picture to be saved in a database.
In some countries it is illegal to do courtsiding. The first case was at Australia Open in 2013, where a British man was arrested but later released, another case was in Saudi Arabia but in the majority of countries it dosen’t break any law.
If you want to start courtsiding you should research the legislation for the specific countries where you want to do your work. Be prepared to invest as it isn’t cheap to travel around the world and buy tickets to sports events, sometimes you may finish in red after some tournaments. Being tech-savvy is a big plus as tournament organizers employ a variety of techniques to spot you (facial recognition, Bluetooth scanning) and do not go with the flock, search for new opportunities. Maybe that hockey event that is happening right next door could be much better than a Grand Slam.
Courtsiding is the practice of placing a bet directly from a sporting event or by transmitting information via other means to a partner that places the bets quickly on a betting platform. By doing this, you can take advantage of the delay/latency of the data transmission or a slow-moving umpire. With this technique you can easily beat sportsbooks or the markets on exchanges by placing bets before the in-play odds update or by entering trades before the market reacts.
Courtsiding is mostly done in tennis but it can be done in a very high number of sports, the basic rule is that a sport should have a high number of points per game (like basketball, volleyball)
Courtsiding back in the day
When I first started doing courtsiding, it was fairly easy, you could just go to a tennis tournament with your laptop and place the bets, no one would ask you anything. Many people were traveling around the world to tennis tournaments and bookmakers were bleeding because they did not understand what is happening.
In 2012-2013 things started to deteriorate, tennis tournament officials caught on they started implementing bans on laptops in the venue and started to monitor spectators. Courtsiding became harder but also technology improved so people who did this full-time would still be able to do this using different techniques like phones or Bluetooth devices. But while everyone was looking at tennis tournaments for courtsiders, they were not paying attention to other sports. There was a year when we started to go to hockey matches where there were no rules on courtsiding. We could stay with the laptop in our lap and place bets on markets like next goal and it was a great success.
Contemporary Courtsiding
It is far harder to do courtsiding today, firstly now if you get caught at a tennis tournament and get banned, your picture will be provided to all other tournaments and at higher level competitions they use facial recognition to spot courtsiders. In 2015, at Wimbledon, it was the first time I saw this happening, a friend of mine just entered the venue and in 15 - 30 minutes security came and kicked him out. He didn’t even attend any tennis match, but he was already in their database.
Courtsiders face tougher times but is this still doable? Now the laptop is replaced with a smartphone with custom apps that let the spectator just click when a point is scored and the data is transmitted to someone who places the bets, I even saw shoes made for courtsiding, one tap to transmit. Everyone is paying attention to tennis, but other sports are the hidden gems for courtsiders.
Is it legal?
While you may be breaking the tournaments rules in most countries you will just get banned from the venue and in the case of tennis your picture to be saved in a database.
In some countries it is illegal to do courtsiding. The first case was at Australia Open in 2013, where a British man was arrested but later released, another case was in Saudi Arabia but in the majority of countries it dosen’t break any law.
If you want to start courtsiding you should research the legislation for the specific countries where you want to do your work. Be prepared to invest as it isn’t cheap to travel around the world and buy tickets to sports events, sometimes you may finish in red after some tournaments. Being tech-savvy is a big plus as tournament organizers employ a variety of techniques to spot you (facial recognition, Bluetooth scanning) and do not go with the flock, search for new opportunities. Maybe that hockey event that is happening right next door could be much better than a Grand Slam.
