Guy arrested at Aussie Open for courtside betting

[shari91]

Since when this is friggen illegal in Australia?! If it is, then I guess I'm lucky I was never busted back when 365 let us live bet online.

"Police have arrested and charged a 22-year-old man for betting court side at the Australian Open tennis.

Police spotted the man from the United Kingdom 'courtsiding' - a form of court side betting that involves placing bets on point outcomes throughout a match.
Police will hold a press conference about the arrest at 3pm."

[rockmvp1209]

wait so he was betting on his phone or what

[losschaser]

He was placing bets after the point ended knowing who won. Sometimes there is a 5-10 second delay on live bets and it becomes beatable. I have caught this loophole a few times before.

[shari91]

wait so he was betting on his phone or what

I assume so.

He was placing bets after the point ended knowing who won. Sometimes there is a 5-10 second delay on live bets and it becomes beatable. I have caught this loophole a few times before.

Even if that were the case, why would Melbourne police care about what he's betting at an overseas book? That'd be an issue between him and the book and Australian books don't even let you live bet online.

[lucasdawg]

i thought it meant like he was betting on the points won for the next game.. where he could potentially interfere with the match
with noises and such to put off a player so that the game plays out to his bet... if that made any sense.

[tipsadontlikehim]

So easy to screw Marathonbet this way

[shari91]

Looks like the law was introduced in April. Be careful people!! Bloody guy ended up in the clink!



Police serve stern warning to tennis goers

• Wednesday, 15 January 2014 15:15

"Police have arrested and charged a man at the Australian Open for ‘courtsiding’, a form of court side betting that involves placing bets on point outcomes throughout a match.

The 22-year-old man from the United Kingdom was observed by police during a game yesterday afternoon and arrested at Melbourne Park around 5.30pm.

He was charged with one count of engaging in conduct that would corrupt a betting outcome.

He was bailed to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 16 January.

Detectives from Victoria Police’s Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit and Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit will continue to monitor the event and are warning would-be punters to think twice about their conduct.

Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said people needed to be aware that this sort of activity was illegal in Victoria.

“Victoria now has specific legislation that covers offences related to cheating at gambling,” DC 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 new legislation under section 195C of the Crimes Act 1958 – Crimes Amendment (Integrity in Sports) Act 2013 – was introduced in Victoria in April 2013."

[EaglesPhan36]

Did you see the story about the guy who dropped a big amount on Rodionova in QUALIS ... tell me that doesn't sound dirty.

[stepanekslips]

Did you see the story about the guy who dropped a big amount on Rodionova in QUALIS ... tell me that doesn't sound dirty.

Only 50k. Dont c what the big deal is.

[losschaser]

According to the Herald Sun, a punter placed bets of $50,000 on Australian Anastasia Rodionova to beat American Coco Vandeweghe in the first round of the qualifying draw in Melbourne.Rdoionova was quoted at $1.80, which means the punter got a return of $90,000 on his bet.Rodionova commented on the news, "Oh really, nice someone is confident in me. That's good. I guess somebody was watching the way I was playing in doubles in Brisbane last week. Winning that tournament in doubles gave me a lot of confidence and I managed to transfer it in singles and had a good result."

[losschaser]

In other words he won $30K after giving $10K to Coco for the fix

[EaglesPhan36]

Only 50k. Dont c what the big deal is.

Everyone knows everyone here is loaded - but 50K on a qualifying match is a huge amount.

[SirtySree]

Isn't it illegal in Aussie to do online live betting?

Plus most sites put a delay on live betting to prevent betting after the event although there is one dumb site that I know of that doesnt have this feature in place.

[Cessation]

Probably just some dumb kid making $20 bets on his betfair account oblivious to the law here.

I'm surprised the tab accepted that bet on Rodionova. Must have went through a bowler account that bets indiscriminately and loses big.

[RichardGeorge]

Where could he get 50K down on a qualifier? BetFair?

[Cessation]

I'm pretty sure I heard it was the tab that took the bet. For the overseas posters the tab run the para mutual pools for horse racing and have branched out into sports betting as the market has grown over the last couple of decades.

[Domestic]

Complete waste of police resources.

[Seto]

Wow.



This stuff can't possibly be illegal in England though can it?

[shari91]

Complete waste of police resources.

I just heard on the news that losschaser was right. The guy was placing live bets through his phone on who would win the next point but there was a 7 second time delay to broadcasts in other countries so he was taking advantage of that. I am shocked they'd have cops patrolling the stands looking for this crap when these aren't even Aussie books involved. You're right... total waste of resources. People look for these lags all the time. It's up to the friggen book to tighten up... not a police force across the world to do their damn job for them.

[Seto]

Oh ok I get it now - next point bets, not any kind of betting on the match you're attending.

[shari91]

Oh ok I get it now - next point bets, not any kind of betting on the match you're attending.

He was sitting at a match and as soon as a player won a point, he'd make a bet for them to win that point as the book was delayed. So he was betting on a known outcome although I still don't understand why Australian police would care about that. It has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of the game or the Aussie Open since he wasn't doing anything like fixing a match or whatever. He wasn't even trying to throw a player off their game as he was betting on things that had already happened. I think half this forum would be thrown in jail if they'd been there

[ttwarrior1]

where can i watch hewitt rafter, not showing it, sucks

[shari91]

where can i watch hewitt rafter, not showing it, sucks

Find one of those tv streaming sites that's showing Aussie station 7Two. It's on there right now and will switch to Channel 7 in about 20 minutes.

[Seto]

He was sitting at a match and as soon as a player won a point, he'd make a bet for them to win that point as the book was delayed. So he was betting on a known outcome although I still don't understand why Australian police would care about that. It has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of the game or the Aussie Open since he wasn't doing anything like fixing a match or whatever. He wasn't even trying to throw a player off their game as he was betting on things that had already happened. I think half this forum would be thrown in jail if they'd been there

Yeah, it's clearly the book's fault, as it is with bad lines (like +111 spread instead of +11 etc), but if you try to take advantage of it you can get fukked.

Hard to understand why they care and how they caught him though, agreed. Wonder if there were any snitches?

[RichardGeorge]

He was sitting at a match and as soon as a player won a point, he'd make a bet for them to win that point as the book was delayed. So he was betting on a known outcome although I still don't understand why Australian police would care about that. It has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of the game or the Aussie Open since he wasn't doing anything like fixing a match or whatever. He wasn't even trying to throw a player off their game as he was betting on things that had already happened. I think half this forum would be thrown in jail if they'd been there

I do this every year at the Newport ATP tourney.... wtf at it being illegal in Australia.

[Bbr]

Meanwhile in melbourne, crackheads are getting high, speeding, running red lights and smashing into non-stationary cars at 120km/hr. Good work VICPOL

[matt1216]

Haha I used to do this at baseball games on "hits " or "out" nothing like having a head start. People are dumb tho, I would purposely lose a wager two to make it look legit

[shari91]

Now they've added more to the story:

"A UK national has been arrested at the Australian Open for allegedly feeding courtside information to an overseas betting syndicate.
It's alleged the man was using a hidden device that enabled him to electronically send information from matches that could be used to place a safe bet on point outcomes through the match.

Mr Ashton said similar behaviour had been detected at last year's Open, before the legislation came into effect.
"We will certainly be watching the event for the remainder of the tournament very closely and looking for other signs," he said.
"If we do see courtsiding, we will deal with it."
Mr Ashton said police were still investigating who else was involved and whether any players could have knowledge of the courtsiding, though it is considered unlikely."

What was the "hidden device"? A phone? An ipad mini, maybe?

Clean up our streets instead of worrying about this crap you wankers

[Optional]

Thanks for the heads up on this crazy sounding law Shari.

Initially I was thinking it might be for live betting when that is supposedly not allowed. But for trying to cheat a bookmaker? Weird.

Sounds like someone trying to stop match fixing managed to get a wide ranging heavy handed law through under the radar.

Be interesting to find the original tabled proposal to see the reasoning behind it.

UK books bought the Aussie industry and now have the cops working for them too.

[shari91]

"Police believe he is part of an Eastern European crime syndicate that targets international sports events." surpreeze surpreeze haha

Victoria Police’s Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit and Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit have been working with Tennis Australia officials to weed out people seeking to "disrupt and corrupt’’ the tournament.

Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said police believe the accused man came to Australia especially for the Open.
He said the quick arrest should serve as a warning to other crime syndicates thinking of coming to Australia to corrupt the betting system.
"Certainly within Victoria we send a very strong message that it won’t be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly both by tennis authorities and by police," he said.
Courtsiding involves an individual sitting courtside at a sports event and sending messages to another person, usually overseas, to give them up to 10 seconds advantage on how a match is progressing. That time is then used to place the bet.
Police are still trying to find the second person involved and will continue to monitor the crowd for the rest of the tournament.
Deputy Commissioner Ashton said there were several people police would focus on but declined to give any further details.
He said any allegations would be taken seriously, because the global tennis betting market was worth "tens of millions every day".

[shari91]

Thanks for the heads up on this crazy sounding law Shari.

Initially I was thinking it might be for live betting when that is supposedly not allowed. But for trying to cheat a bookmaker? Weird.

Sounds like someone trying to stop match fixing managed to get a wide ranging heavy handed law through under the radar.

Be interesting to find the original tabled proposal to see the reasoning behind it.

UK books bought the Aussie industry and now have the cops working for them too.

That's what it sounds like to me too. In one of the articles it said that the first arrests made under this new law were the Southern Stars ones but they involved players who were match fixing so that makes sense to me. The police have said they don't think any players were involved at the tennis and obviously we know as gamblers that we don't need to be anywhere physically near where a game or match is being played for us to do the same thing this guy did at a weak book. The only thing he attempted to do was jack a book, not affect the match at all so I don't get how this can now be illegal and considered corrupting the game. People on this forum do this every day and they're nowhere near the event. It all sounds rather f'd. I hope these books at least give our police some cash for their efforts because if not, it seems like a huge waste of taxpayer money.

[Hardcoar]

I don't get it... sending information on the outcome of a tennis match in real time is illegal??

[shari91]

I don't get it... sending information on the outcome of a tennis match in real time is illegal??

Apparently if people go bet at a weak ass book with that info it is. Even worse if you, like tens of thousands of other people, come to Australia specifically for the Aussie Open. Oh and if you're sending that info to Eastern Euros seems to be frowned upon too. The guy wasn't even fricken placing the bets himself! That's ridiculous to me.

I wonder if when I'm at the tennis on Saturday, if I start a thread on here about the match I'm watching and just start posting who won each point so anyone can take advantage of that info if I could be charged and thrown in jail too. How stupid does that sound?

It shouldn't matter what the guy was doing with that info or even if he was part of a syndicate. If he didn't attempt to interfere with the players at all, then the onus is on the book to find out what the delay is and adjust accordingly. It shouldn't be up to a police force to do the job of a book.

[Optional]

I don't get it... sending information on the outcome of a tennis match in real time is illegal??

It seems that way. Although I doubt simply betting is actually illegal. Even if the papers say it.

I'm pretty familiar with Aussie common law. I'd almost like to attend and start betting obviously from the sideline to see what happens. I don't think I'd even need a lawyer to get out of any charges if they came.

Which leads me to suspect it may not really be illegal to simply bet on a match whilst in attendance.

Could be wrong of course.

[Optional]

Apparently if people go bet at a weak ass book with that info it is. Even worse if you, like tens of thousands of other people, come to Australia specifically for the Aussie Open. Oh and if you're sending that info to Eastern Euros seems to be frowned upon too. The guy wasn't even fricken placing the bets himself! That's ridiculous to me.

I wonder if when I'm at the tennis on Saturday, if I start a thread on here about the match I'm watching and just start posting who won each point so anyone can take advantage of that info if I could be charged and thrown in jail too. How stupid does that sound?

It shouldn't matter what the guy was doing with that info or even if he was part of a syndicate. If he didn't attempt to interfere with the players at all, then the onus is on the book to find out what the delay is and adjust accordingly. It shouldn't be up to a police force to do the job of a book.

I'd love to see a bunch of indignant punters turn up front row holding ipads up posting on blogs and twitter and facebook about match progress.