WHAT IS COURTSIDING?

Courtsiding is the practice of instant, covert transmission of information about developments in a match or competition to obtain a financial advantage in betting.

Courtsiding requires someone to be present at a sporting event (“court side”) and relies on the slight delay between the actual state-of-play and the transmission of data or broadcasting of the event that bookmakers rely on to frame markets. The delay allows punters to receive that information from the event quickly to place bets before the bookmakers can adjust their odds based on that same information.

While it is usually in breach of event ticketing or entry conditions and the removal of courtsiders is not unusual in Australia, it’s not actually illegal, nor does courtsiding pose any significant integrity threat to sport. It can, however, corrupt betting markets and thus create distrust and unease among fans, customers and sponsors.

After some interest in courtsiding at basketball games created a short flurry of media interest earlier this year, we thought it timely to share our courtsiding fact sheet which includes what sporting organisations can do to stop courtsiding and data-scouting.

Learn more about Courtsiding and other betting-related integrity matters on the Sport integrity website (including a Courtsiding fact sheet for download).

What is the difference between courtsiding and data-scouting?

While both involve the capture and dissemination of sports data, the primary difference is its use. While courtsiding is to collect and disseminate data for gamblers to get an advantage over gambling operators, data-scouting is the collection of sports data (event and/or performance data), such as live scores or statistics, to disseminate to gambling operators to assist them to offer betting options.