Courtsiding has always had a contentious reputation, that I don’t honestly think is merited these days. Courtsiding is the relaying of information from the venue. Lets look at the history of it first to put things into some kind of context. I am only talking exchanges in this tweet.
Courtsiding has only really existed since betting in running has existed. The quest for information before others has always existed. The only difference is that instead of finding faster scoreboards or faster tv feeds, people send people to the venues to get the info first.
In the early days the early pioneers of courtsiding were amply rewarded for their efforts. This was partly because of naivety on the behalf of other customers and lack of competition. Like anything in life where excess profits exist they were soon competed away.
People became more aware that they simply couldn’t leave bets up at certain stages (Betfair even included warnings in it rules). The other thing that happened was the introduction of the Premium Charge. That was partly as a response to courtsiding as BF wanted a slice of the pie.
Courtsiding and the practice of it, came to prominence when a young participant was arrested at the Australian Open tennis. He was never found guilty of anything but courtsiding was in the news and as is the want of the media, grossly misunderstood and misinformed.
It was also shown on a BBC investigatory programme involving bookmakers rather than exchanges. Again it painted a very negative picture. The same applied with the concept of laying fallers in horse racing which attracted a lot of negative press.
There is a simple reality to all of this. The bets placed with the info from the venue, would simply be placed at a later date, once people have seen what has happened. There would be people who would still lay fallers once it was on tv, if money was there to be made.
What people don’t really understand is that without courtsiding the liquidity in running would plummet through the floor and some sports almost unviable. Courtsiding and its impact really varies by sport and the quality of existing feeds and the way markets are managed.
I will do another tweet looking at other sports and courtsiding but for now I will just be talking abut golf and the experiences I have had. There is a simple problem with golf betting and in running and that is simply how bad tv coverage/leaderboards have been and continue to be. It used to be the case that PGA Tour events could easily be 45 seconds delayed on Sky (still claiming live btw) and European Tour events 5/6 secs delayed. You also have the problem that play is happening all around the course that can impact the prices. Shots are often queued up. When you ally this to horrendously delayed scoreboards that are not fit for purpose, compared to other sports you have a huge problem if you want to bet in running seriously. Yes you can try and pick your moments but you cannot leave prices up.
How do you negate these issues? Send someone to the courses at great expense. Flights, hotels, tickets, trains, taxis, sim cards, phones, software etc etc are just some of the costs. Even then you are competing against others who are doing similar.
The idea that it is easy money is simply laughable. Send someone to the events. Try it. That’s what I have never understood about those complaining. Anyone can do it. Look at the spreads in the mkt when something key is about to happen.
What it does, is let you seed markets without being too worried you are going to be swept. Obviously, you are dependant upon runners not making mistakes and it does happen and can get expensive. However, you are providing liquidity to the market that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
Liquidity attracts liquidity. I haven’t done any courtsiding since early 2020 when the pandemic started. There was no golf. What has changed subsequently is IMG have developed a leaderboard that they distribute via Bet365. It is very impressive albeit not perfect.
It just means it simply isn’t worth the costs associated with sending someone to events now. The downside is I cannot leave prices up like I used to. You end up being a price taker. The markets lose liquidity without those sending people to events.
I hope it shows a little about how important sending people to events can be, in terms of providing liquidity that others then rely on. Without it, you don’t have in running markets. Someone will always get that information first. You want them providing liquidity.
I know Mustardbet the largest golf syndicate around used to send people to events. They used to provide all the pricing for Ladbrokes/Corals in running. They no doubt have a better version of the IMG feed these days. Its just a reality that you have to do it if a serious player.
ProPunting 