Man Arrested & Charged For Courtside Betting At Australian Open

An interesting story broke out from “down under” overnight and involves the popular subject of “courtsiding“. It turns out a man from the UK has been arrested and charged as a result of “courtside betting” at the Australian Open.

3News reports that

A man from the United Kingdom has been arrested and charged for “engaging in conduct that would corrupt a betting outcome” at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

The 22-year-old was ‘courtsiding’, a form of court-side betting that involves placing bets on point outcomes during a match, and Melbourne police are warning others to beware of such activities.

“Victoria now has specific legislation that covers offences related to cheating at gambling,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said.

“Offences include engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome, facilitating conduct that could corrupt a betting outcome and use of corrupt conduct information for betting purposes. These offences carry hefty penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

“We will be monitoring matches for the remainder of the tournament, so if you’re thinking of engaging in this kind of behaviour, think again.”

The man has been bailed and is due to appear in court tomorrow.

This is obviously very interesting for people like myself as courtsiding has always been a subject of interest on this very blog. Every Betfair trader worth his salt has considered doing this before. However, I do not think many realised it was actually a criminal offence or at least it is in Australia.

It does make me wonder just what the actual “offence” is that this individual has committed. As far we are all aware, Courtsiding is just sitting by the side of the court and placing bets faster then everyone else. You are exploiting the time delay between the live action and the TV pictures everyone else is watching. He is not influencing the match itself in anyway and his only “crime” would be having faster access to information then everyone else. Previous to this the worst we ever heard happening to courtsiders was being thrown out and banned from the venue.

The conspiracy theorist inside of me suggests this arrest is little more then a case of “making an example” of the individual in order to scare others away from considering courtsiding. The line of “so if you’re thinking of engaging in this kind of behaviour, think again.” appears to confirm that.

I will obviously be waiting to see what develops from here but this might be the last of it as I can not see what laws he has broken. He has not influenced the outcome in any way and watching a match live is hardly “corrupt information” either.

We all know the Tennis markets are full of BIG money, so it does make you wonder why the authorities are so keen to stop regular individuals having access to the fastest information. Someone has to get the bets in there first and you can be sure it will not be a TV viewer so are they protecting the interests of someone else?

The plot thickens…

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