Protectionist bollocks from the ATP

Slightly old news now, but I've just found the time to write properly about this. Reports in the press last week of spectators being ejected from the Auckland tournament for 'illegal' betting, which is simply protectionist propaganda from the ATP. There is no 'illegal' betting taking place here - New Zealand has bans on foreign betting firms advertising in NZ but they certainly don't prosecute users of Betfair or Bet365 for example. The courtsiders are simply taking advantage of being ahead of the broadcast back to Europe.

Tennis: Spot-betting spectators ejected

Two spectators have been kicked out of the Heineken Open in Auckland for illegal spot-betting.

Tournament director Richard Palmer confirmed one patron had been removed on Monday at the Heineken Open and another had been evicted during last week's ASB Classic for transmitting scoring information from the stands.

The spectators were spotted in the crowd allegedly using palm-type devices to bet on specific points.

The delay between what happens on court and when it's screened around the world enables people at the stadium to quickly get bets on before those outside know what's happened.

ATP tournament director Tom Barnes said the spectators who were evicted were known to them.

"It is a career opportunity to these people. They show up everywhere."

Mr Barnes said the pair were both using European betting sites.

"On some of these European betting sites, you can bet, for example, on a first serve whether a guy is going to make a fault or not. Somebody sitting in the stands with a cell phone can transmit this information to somebody in Europe and that somebody can bet that the first serve is a fault."

Another piece of utter crap from the ATP spokesman - 'you can bet on a fault'. No, you can't. Certain firms offer betting on each point, but they aren't gullible enough to offer it on the very next point - they know as well as everyone else that broadcast delays exist, so those prices are created for several points ahead, or the next (not current) game. The courtsiders are there to sweep prices, predominantly on Betfair - taking 1.6 before the market moves to 1.5 etc, on the case of a key point like a break point, significantly wider gaps. Then if they want, they can trade straight back and lock in a profit within seconds.

This is not illegal. It is taking advantage of other punters, but it has been going on so long, that anyone betting on tennis should be well aware of it anyway. Are the ATP (and WTA) trying to stop innocent punters from having their unmatched bets hoovered up by courtsiders? Not on your life. Their only interest here is protecting their new live data partners Enetpulse. The subscription price for bookmakers to take this service is massive, so obviously Enetpulse paid a premium for it and the tennis authorities want to protect that revenue stream. Any site not taking data from Enetpulse (or subsidiaries, sub-contracts etc) is supposed to be delayed by 30 seconds, or they are scraping from another site. The only way to get around this is via live pics, where a separate data stream isn't required.

Note, the Grand Slams are ITF events, and will not be covered by the above deal, so scores should be live, assuming the website is working at the optimum level.